Plagiarism versus paraphrasing: Ensure your copy makes the grade
Next o’er his books his eyes began to roll,
In pleasing memory of all he stole;
How here he sipp’d, how there he plunder’d snug
All suck’d o’er like an industrious bug.
— Alexander Pope
Over the past few weeks, several articles have appeared in PR Daily about plagiarism. One involved a medical school dean who had lifted passages from a speech originally given by Dr. Atul Gawande. Another involved the principal at a New York school for writers.
If these allegations prove true, it’s unlikely that these individuals can credibly claim they didn’t know they were plagiarizing. However, the writers I work with are often confused about the difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing. They struggle with knowing when to cite and when to quote. Based on the style guide we follow—The American Medical Association Manual of Style—this is what I tell them.
• Plagiarism is the “verbatim lifting of passages without enclosing the borrowed material in quotation marks and crediting the original author.” Plagiarism should be avoided.
• Paraphrasing is “restating a phrase or passage, providing the same meaning but in a different form without attribution to the original author.” For our publications, paraphrasing is allowed, but only if you attribute the information to the original author and you re-state the information. This is the key—the information must be re-stated in different words!
For example, if you want to use the information word for word, here is the correct way to do it.
Partial quote
According to the AMA Manual of Style, “plagiarism of published work violates standards of honesty and collegial trust and may also violate copyright law.” (1)
Full quote
“Such failure to acknowledge a source properly may on occasion be caused by careless note taking or ignorance of the canons of research and authorship.” (1)
Here is an example of the correct way to paraphrase a passage from another source.
Original passage
“The common characteristic of these kinds of plagiarism is the failure to attribute words, ideas, or findings to their true authors”
Paraphrased passage with attribution
These types of plagiarism have one thing in common; that is the failure to credit the work to the original author, says the AMA Manual of Style.
Remember, if you are using the words from the source verbatim, you must use quotes and cite the source. If you are not using the words verbatim, but the idea expressed in the passage is not your own, you can paraphrase the passage using different words. However, you must cite the original source.
1. Iverson C, et al. AMA Manual of Style. Section 5.4.2, page 158. 10th edition. 2007.
A version of this story first appeared on Ragan Communication’s PR Daily.
