LibGuides: Sociology: How to Avoid Plagiarism

Plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism

If using ideas or words from someone else’s work be sure to do at least one of the following:

•Paraphrase

•Quote

•Summarize

•Try to use more than one resource to describe one particular concept.

•No matter which of the three methods you choose you must cite your sources!

What is a Paraphrase?

Paraphrase is a re-statement of an original piece of written text into your own words. Just like translating, when you paraphrase, you do not change the meaning or the ideas being put forth, nor do you leave any information out (as you would in a summary); you change the language. (Gunder & Sadler, 1999)

What is Quoting?

Matches word by word to the original text.

Have a citation for the original source.

Requires that the text be attributed to the original author.

What is Summarizing?

Is writing the main idea(s) in your own words.
Requires that the summarized material be cited.