Skip to Main Content
LibGuides logo

CAW LibGuides: Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism

CAW Student Portal Pages

Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism

Resource aims

This handout provides strategies to help with the understanding and avoidance of plagiarism in your writing. It defines plagiarism, offers guidance for how to use evidence to avoid plagiarism, and contains a checklist to guide your future writing.  The examples in this handout use the APA 7th edition referencing style; however, the guidance applies to any style of academic referencing.

What is plagiarism?

“In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else's language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source” (Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2019).

Coventry University’s regulations define plagiarism as

The act of using other people’s words, images, etc. (whether published or unpublished) as if they were your own.

However, you may also be found guilty of plagiarism at Coventry University even by accidentally using someone else’s language or ideas as if they were your own.

Intentional Plagiarism

This form of plagiarism describes instances in which an author deliberately uses the words or ideas of others and purposely fails to identify the original source.

Unintentional Plagiarism

This type of plagiarism refers to instances in which an author does not deliberately use the words or ideas of others without attribution, but does fail to provide full, correct, acknowledgement of the original source. This is why it is essential to follow referencing guidelines correctly in your writing, and to ensure you are adhering to academic conventions when you cite sources in support of your arguments.

  • Remember to cite the sources for all materials that you are using as in-text citations.
  • Remember to include a List of References at the end of your assignments and check that the list includes all of the references from your in-text citations.

Different ways to cite sources

Direct quotations

Direct quotations are useful when it is important to replicate exactly the language used in a source, as well as its meaning.

This form of citation requires you to use the exact words, in the same order as they are in the original source. Your quotation must be placed inside quotation marks, and within the same sentence, you must include an in-text citation within circular brackets (). In-text citations can be either integrated or non-integrated.

            Example: non-integrated citation (also called a parenthetical citation)

‘Whatever kind of research you are involved in, you will need to ensure that you take ethics into account’ (Wisker, 2001, p. 125).      

In this example, all of the in-text citation (author’s surname, source publication year, page number) is contained within circular brackets directly after the direct quotation ends. The in-text citation is contained in the same sentence as the quotation, and is placed before the full stop.

Example: integrated citation (also called a narrative citation)

Bakhtin (1981/2017) argued that ‘Each word tastes of the context and contexts in which it has lived its socially charged life’ (p. 208).

In this example, the surname of the author of the source is ‘integrated’ into your sentence, although the publication date and page number remains in brackets. The publication date comes after the source’s author is named, and the page number after the direct quote has ended, but as always, before the full stop.

Indirect quotations (paraphrasing and summarising)

This form of citation requires you to rewrite in your own words the idea that you want to cite in evidence for your argument. It is essential that you do not use the exact words that are used in the original source, but it is also essential that you do not change the meaning of the source. Not changing the language of the original source enough can result in accidental plagiarism. You also need to include an in-text citation, although this can be either integrated within your text, or non-integrated.

How to paraphrase

Paraphrasing is a really useful skill, as it shows that you understand the ideas well enough to rewrite them in your own words.

Look to change the following aspects of the original source:

  • The vocabulary
  • The word order
  • The grammar

Example:

Direct quote:

Fashion designers ‘have both the ability and opportunity to influence the development of products and services that can lessen our impact on the environment’ (Gwilt, 2020, p.1).

One possible paraphrase:

Fashion designers can influence society’s impact on the environment (Gwilt, 2020, p.1).  

As with direct quotations, indirect quotations can be non-integrated (as above) or integrated (as below):

Gwilt (2020) argues that fashion designers can influence society’s impact on the environment (p.1). 

Sentences can refer to more than one source and have more than one citation type:

‘The typewriter century began with writers like Mark Twain and Friedrich Nietzsche adopting typewriters to write (Wershler-Henry, 2005), and concluded with scholars like the sociologist Howard S. Becker moving to onto microcomputers and “word processors”’ (Becker, 2007, p.151).

When writing sentences that bring different sources together, place each in-text citation in brackets immediately after you quote, paraphrase, or summarise.

References

References

Bakhtin, M. (2017). Discourse in the novel. In J. Rivkin & M. Ryan (Eds.), Literary theory: An anthology (3rd ed., pp. 205-216) John Wiley & Sons.

Becker, H. S. (2007). Writing for social scientists: How to start and finish your thesis, book, or article (2nd ed.) University of Chicago Press.

Council of Writing Program Administrators. (2019). Defining and avoiding plagiarism: The WPA statement on best practices. https://wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sd/news_article/272555/_PARENT/layout_details/false.

Gwilt, A. (2020). A practical guide to sustainable fashion. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

Wershler-Henry., D. (2005). The iron whim: A fragmented history of typewriting. McClelland & Stewart Ltd.

Wisker, G. (2001). The postgraduate research handbook: Succeed with your MA, MPhil, EdD and PhD. Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Further Support

If you feel that you are struggling with understanding how to avoid plagiarism, or would like additional guidance, look into further support as soon as you can.  CAW offers writing development workshops across all genres of academic writing, including Using Sources Effectively: Avoiding Plagiarism in Your Writing and Academic Integrity: A Fundamental Introduction that can provide additional guidance with using and integrating sources effectively and academic integrity in general.

To practice paraphrasing, try these activities provided by APA (2020): Paraphrasing and Citation Activities, APA Style 7th Edition at:

https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/paraphrasing-citation-activities.pdf