Library Services on eFundi: What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the reproduction of somebody else’s work or ideas, presenting it as your own without giving recognition to that person. This represents academic or intellectual theft. Writing a sentence in your academic report or writing without a reference or quoting it in inverted commas implies that it is your work or idea. However, if this is not the case, you have committed plagiarism – a very serious transgression in academic circles. Even when you translate a sentence or part of another author’s work, or if you describe it in your own words (paraphrase), you still have to give credit to that author through an in-text reference and entry in the reference list for that source.

Plagiarism can be prevented using precise textual references and entries in your reference list.

Academic report writing, therefore, requires that all consulted sources be indicated in the text and that complete details be given in the reference list.

• It recognises the original author whose ideas or facts have been used.
• The author provides proof of the source of information used.
• References to the sources prove the comprehensiveness of the research.
• References to recognised sources lend authority to the author’s views.
• References prove the origin of the author’s views.
• The reader can use the reference list to verify the correct interpretation of any reference to a source.
• The reference list serves as an additional source of information that can be consulted for more information on the subject.

Quotation:  Use someone else's exact words in your text

• Quote verbatim (word for word) by using quotation marks, e.g. It has "always been a controversial issue" (Le Roux, 2015: 43).
• Quotations must not be too long, and they must be used only when appropriate. The source must be cited in the text and the source list.

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Paraphrase:  Rewrite an original passage in your own words

• Don't simply rearrange the sentence and cheat with cosmetic changes, e.g. teenager instead of pubescent.
• Almost nothing of the original language must remain.
• Indicate how you relate to the original author's idea by choosing the appropriate verb e.g Meyer et al. (2015: 43) note, insist, indicate, believe, demonstrate, recommend, argue, claim, suspect, hypothesize...

Summary:

• A summary is a highly condensed form of paraphrase by means of which the essence of for instance a chapter or book can be captured in a few words, sentences or paragraph(s).