1. Paraphrases with no citation
Because a paraphrase is supposed to contain all of the author’s information and none of your own commentary, a paraphrase with no citation is an example of plagiarism. The St. Martin’s Handbook defines an appropriate paraphrase as follows:
A paraphrase accurately states all the relevant information from a passage in your own words and phrasing, without any additional comments or elaborations [it] always restates all themain points of the passage in the same order and in about the same number of words. (Lunsford and Connors 596)
Lunsford and Connors go on to give two examples of unacceptable paraphrases: one that uses the author’s words, and one that uses the author’s sentences structures (597).
Lunsford and Connors also state that “even for acceptable paraphrases you must include a citation in your essay identifying the source of the information” (597). This point is crucial: without the information about the source, an appropriate paraphrase becomes plagiarism.
Even if you have avoided using the author’s words, sentences structure, or style, an unattributed paraphrase is plagiarism because it presents the same information in the same order.
2. Misplaced citations
If you use a paraphrase or direct quotation, it is important to place the reference at the very end of all the material cited. Any quoted, paraphrased, or summarized material that comes after the reference is plagiarized: it looks like it is supposed to be your own idea.
This is one reason why accurate notetaking is so important; it is possible to forget which words are yours and which are the original writers.
Original source:
Paraphrasing material helps you digest a passage, because chances are you can’t restate the passage in your own words unless you grasp its full meaning. When you incorporate an accurate paraphrase into your essay, you show your readers that you understand that source. (Lunsford and Connors 596)
Plagiarism (misplaced citation):
Lunsford and Connors say that paraphrasing is useful because “[p]araphrasing material helps you digest a passage, because chances are you can’t restate the passage in your own words unless you grasp its full meaning” (596). When you incorporate an accurate paraphrase into your essay, you show your readers your understanding of that source.
The reader would logically assume that the sentence following the citation is your own comment on the quotation, when it is actually part of the original quote.
Finally, a point about multiple citations from the same source: cite them all individually. It is not adequate to give one citation at the end of the paragraph for a bunch of individual points abstracted from a source.
Parenthetical citations are intended to make citing your sources easy to do; don’t be shy about using them.
Taken from Lunsford and Connors 597-98.
Original Passage:
But Frida’s outlook was vastly different from that of the Surrealists. Her art was not the product of a disillusioned European culture searching for an escape from the limits of logic by plumbing the subconscious. Instead, her fantasy was a product of her temperament, life, and place; it was a way of coming to terms with reality, not of passing beyond reality into another realm.
Hayden Herrera, Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo (258)
Paraphrase:
As Herrera explains, Frida’s surrealistic vision was unlike that of the European Surrealists. While their art grew out of their disenchantment with society and their desire to explore the subconscious mind as a refuge from rational thinking , Frida’s vision was an outgrowth of her own personality and life experiences in Mexico. She used her surrealistic images to understand better her actual life, not to create a dreamworld (258).
Works Cited
Lunsford, Andrea, and Robert Connors. St. Martin’s Handbook. 3rd. ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
