Preventing Plagiarism: Knowing How to Paraphrase and Cite
Scope: This guide helps students avoid plagiarism by demonstrating how to paraphrase, quote, and cite research sources correctly. It also provides links to other useful resources on plagiarism and citation. It was created as a tool for students at the Universities at Shady Grove. If you have questions, need assistance, or find a broken link, please contact Shady Grove Library at shadylib@umd.edu or Marsha Youngblood at myoungbl@umd.edu.
Useful Resources for Citation Systems and Academic Integrity
- Citation Systems and Style Manuals - a basic introduction to the citation process
- Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory - resources for students, from UMUC
- Overview of Academic Integrity - overview from UMBC
- Academic Integrity and Plagiarism- UM Libraries' information and links
Quiz
How well do you know the guidelines for academic integrity and citation? Try our self quiz.
- You can find citations to journal articles in a library's catalog.
- If I want to use an image from the Internet for my arts project, I must first check for copyright permission.
- What is the correct way of citing an article from a peer-reviewed journal which does have a volume and/or issue number, but also provides the month in which it was published?
- The major citation styles generally used on most college campuses are:
- Which field from the following book record IS NOT required in your citation?
Instructions for questions 6-8: The following questions include original versions as well as student's attempts to paraphrase the original passages. Please indicate by clicking on the appropriate button whether or not you think the paraphrase has plagiarized the original passages. - Original version: In analyzing the culture of a particular group or organization it is desirable to distinguish three fundamental levels at which culture manifests itself: (a) observable artifacts, (b) values, and (c) basic underlying assumptions.
Source: Schein, E.H. (1990). Organizational culture. American Psychologist, 45(2), 109-119.
Student's Version: Values and observations are two tools that might help me in observing the group I will investigate in this study.
Is this Plagiarism?
- Original version: The University counts among its greatest strengths and a major component of its excellence the diversity of its faculty, students, and staff...It strives to hire a diverse faculty and staff of exceptional achievement through affirmative action, to celebrate diversity in all of its programs and activities, and to recruit and retain qualified graduate and undergraduate minority students.
Source: Excerpt from the University of Maryland Mission Statement. Retrieved April 11, 2006 from: http://www.provost.umd.edu/Strategic_Planning/Mission2000.html
Student's Version: Although some may feel hiring diverse faculty members is not a priority for universities, many schools claim that they strive to hire diverse faculty and staff of exceptional achievement.
Is this plagiarism?
- Original version: Thurgood Marshall's rise to power played out against the backdrop of America's tempestuous history of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and the civil rights movement...Any attempt to know Thurgood Marshall had to start with his family and his hometown. His defiance of segregation, his willingness to stand up to powerful whites, and his insistence that he was the equal of any man were rooted in his Baltimore family.
Source: Williams, J. (1998). Thurgood Marshall: American revolutionary. New York: Three Rivers Press.
Student's version: Not all powerful leaders come from a place of power and privilege. On his way to becoming the first African American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall overcame racism and segregation to assert his equality and his rights (Williams, 1998).
Is this plagiarism?
