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Plagiarism happens when your work does not have your own distinctive
voice. It is the failure to be original. It is passing off someone
else’s ideas, words, or analytical frameworks as your own,
intentionally or not. It is intellectual theft. It undermines the
purpose of your education. Occasionally there are flagrant examples of
plagiarism: copying, purchasing, or stealing someone else’s paper and
turning it in as your own; copying out a whole section directly from a
book, an article, or off the Web and putting it into your paper without
showing where you got it from; or including important facts or data
without citing a source. But often plagiarism is unintentional, or
unconscious. For example, you may like what a source says, and actually
quote a sentence from it directly and put in a footnote to the source.
But if you then go on to paraphrase or summarize more from the same
source without another footnote acknowledging that you are still
drawing on that source, it looks as if you are pretending that other
person’s ideas are yours.
Frameworks
If you borrow someone else’s
analytical framework without pointing out to the reader that this is
what you are doing, you are still unjustly passing off someone else’s intellectual work as your own. So, for
example, if you read an article by Arthur Finkelstein where he claims
“There are two forms of nationalism in China: ethnic and religious,”
you cannot simply repeat this in your paper. You have to say,
“According to Finkelstein, Chinese nationalism comes in two forms. One
is ethnic. The other is religious.” You can then proceed to use his
framework to help make sense of the material you are looking at. But
you have to be clear that you are doing so. This does not make you less
original or intelligent. Writers of all sorts do this all the time. You
just have to be clear about it. Otherwise you are committing
plagiarism.
Good history is a cumulative enterprise: it builds on the work of
earlier scholars and furnishes a basis future scholars will use as
their point of departure. Robert Merton, a sociologist who understood
these things as well as anyone, explained that as scholars we stand on
the shoulders of giants. Yes, we see farther than our predecessors did,
but without their work to support us our understanding would be
extremely limited.
Quotations both acknowledge your debt to other scholars and illustrate
how you are building on their ideas. For this reason it is important to
keep the quotes brief, and make sure that they illustrate a point of
yours. Just presenting long quotes from important scholars, even if you
agree with everything they say, does not let your reader understand
your thinking. You have to put things in your own word and let the
reader know why you agree with what is in the quote.
When you write a paper, you become part of the cumulative enterprise of
history writing. Taking advantage of the work of previous scholars
means you're in the fortunate position of not having to re-invent the
wheel. At the same time, your voice adds to the discussion that keeps
the common stock of knowledge growing. Make sure your reader can see
it!
Notes
A number of students, and even the occasional professional
historian, have been caught plagiarizing because they took sloppy
notes. Be careful when doing your research. Remember that the main goal
is not just to absorb the information but also to distinguish your
ideas from those of the source – even when you agree with it. If you
are copying down a whole passage, put it in quotes and note the page
number. You can also write down whatever ideas come to you while you
are reading the source, but be sure to distinguish these from what you
are copying out of the source itself. You can put the thoughts in
parentheses, or in a different script, or on different part of the
page. If you are taking notes on a computer, keep them in a separate
file from your paper.
The History Department treats issues of academic integrity on a
case-by-case basis. But there is a Columbia University plagiarism
policy that you should be aware of. Click here to read it.
Note that it says: “[A]cademic dishonesty is one of the most serious
offenses that a student can commit at Columbia. It is punishable by
suspension or dismissal from the College.”
If you want to learn more about plagiarism, or test your knowledge, click here for an online tutorial.
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