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About Secondary Sources

If you use sources other than the textbook you must acknowledge your borrowings:

Any passage in your paper not specifically credited to a source is presumed to be your own thinking. If it is not, then you have plagiarized by claiming it is your own idea. You claimed it was your own insight when you did not credit it to a source.
A list of works cited alone is not enough. In addition, you must cite each borrowing. Readers will not guess which parts of your paper are borrowed and which are original.

Any passage in your paper credited to a source but without quotation marks is presumed to be your own wording. If it is not your words and sentence structure, then you have plagiarized by claiming it is your own language. You claimed it was your own wording when you did not put quotation marks, even though you credited the source.
Acknowledge EACH borrowing of exact words with quotation marks and a citation.

Acknowledge EACH paraphrased borrowing with a citation. And be sure you compress your paraphrase skillfully into your own language (rather than merely manipulate the source’s language.)

Unskillful paraphrase is a form of plagiarism, even if credited to a source. You can’t put quotation marks because it is not the source’s exact language. You can’t claim the language as your own because it is too similar to the source’s language.

The key to skillful paraphrase is to write your summary without looking at the original source. Then check your version to be sure that no key words or phrases or structures duplicate parts of the original passage.

“Paraphrase Examples” shows an unskillful paraphrase and an acceptable revision.

You can check any handbook or some Internet sources for the conventions of documenting sources. A Writer’s Reference is an excellent online source.

Last updated 01/09/2007