HCM 2301: Health Law & Ethics

Plagiarism is copying someone's work without permission. Plagiarism is also stealing a paper, buying or hiring someone to write your paper, and borrowing a paper to pass off as your own. Often plagiarism is copying large amounts of text from a source without giving it adequate attribution. Even if you are paraphrasing the text instead of merely copying, you must give proper credit and your paraphrase can't match the original text too closely.

Paraphrasing is using your own words to tell your reader the main idea of another author. Paraphrasing still requires that proper credit be given even if it's not a direct quotation.

Being able to properly paraphrase is important because:

• It is usually shorter than the original quotation and therefore helps your paper be more concise and relevant.
• It gives you control on what information you want to include so you can eliminate parts of the text that aren't applicable to your argument.
• It demonstrates that you understand what you read.
• It is the preferred approach to using sources instead of having a paper full of text.

If your paraphrase remains too close to the original source, it can still be plagiarism even with the proper citation. This is because without the use of quotes, you are claiming what you are writing is your own words and not that of another.

Examples of Improper Paraphrasing*::

*Examples from: Isakov, L., and Klassen, C. (2014). Paraphrasing without plagiarizing [PDF file]. (Douglas College). Retrieved from https://guides.douglascollege.ca/ld.php?content_id=35091553

Technique #1: Find the Main Idea

Find the main idea of the passage you are trying to paraphrase by crossing out irrelevant information and underlining keywords that help you capture the main idea you want to use.

Technique #2: Use Different Words

This technique suggests replacing words with synonyms BUT it must also be combined with either rewording the entire sentence, changing the sentence structure, and reordering the main ideas. If you only change words with synonyms, it's still considered plagiarism. This technique must be combined with another.

Technique #3: Change the Order of Ideas

Identify the main idea or ideas from a passage that you want to paraphrase and try changing the order in which the ideas have been presented. Make sure you are also rewriting the way the ideas are written. If it's too close to the original, it can still be considered plagiarism.

Technique #4: Memory Notes

Take brief notes on the passage you want to rewrite, using only keywords or key phrases. Then using only those notes, try to reconstruct the meaning of the idea from memory. Compare your new sentence to the original to ensure it's not too close of a match.

Taken from: Isakov, L., and Klassen, C. (2014). Paraphrasing without plagiarizing [PDF file]. (Douglas College). Retrieved from https://guides.douglascollege.ca/ld.php?content_id=35091553