COMM 110: Kaven: Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism can be unintentional or intentional when ideas, text, and creative work are used but not cited in academic, professional, and personal work. Common forms of plagiarism can include:

• Passing off another’s ideas or work as your own
• Fabricating citations
• Copying, cutting and pasting without citing the original source
• Paraphrasing incorrectly
• Using media files, such as image, audio or video files, without citing them

How will you know if something is common knowledge? Consider:

1. Can it be found in many different places?
2. Is it widely known by a lot of different people?

Use your common sense — when in doubt, ask!

Consider using tools to help organize your research and keep your information in one place. Try keeping track of what you're quoting or paraphrasing in a “research journal.” Some great suggestions for free, online options at:

If you just want to track your citations (without notes), use online tools like RefWorks (http://refworks.com).

• Cite your sources (direct quotes and paraphrasing) as you write your rough draft. Refer back to your research journal for accuracy.
• Use style guides to cite in the correct format. Ask a librarian about how can save you time!
• When in doubt, cite it! Cite all outside sources except for common knowledge.

If you still have questions about when to cite, check with your instructor.

1. Read the entire text, underlining key points and main ideas.

2. In your own words, write a sentence about the main idea of the text (i.e. summarize). Also, write key points in the text.

3. Highlight any words, phrases, or key passages that you would want to quote directly.

4. Combine the above into a new paraphrased paragraph, using your own words.

Practicing good research skills means that last minute crush to get the paper finished doesn't have to be so stressful.  Learn some great tips at the UC San Diego Library's tutorial:

You can also pick up some great tips from this brochure: