Each of the professions has its special ethical problem. In scholarship one such difficulty is plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional. In college the issue normally presents itself when an instructor receives a paper that could not possibly have been the sole work of the student whose name it bears. In such an event the instructor is compelled to consider the possibility of plagiarism,that is, the deliberate presentation of the work of another as one's own, then the course is clear. Such a violation of ethics may be grounds for suspension or expulsion of the student. But this kind of plagiarism is rare among mature students. Much more frequently, the error results from ignorance of the rules governing the use of the words, thoughts, and discoveries of others.

Accidental plagiarism usually comes about when students use a reference source previous to writing and take notes directly from the source. In using this material later students may neglect to surround the quoted material with quotation marks. Or they may assume that if they do not use the exact wording found in the source that they are discharged from responsibility for giving credit to the source. It is therefore important that instructors give careful attention to the proper procedure to follow in using reference materials, so that their students may avoid stumbling inadvertently into plagiarism.

Generally speaking, material derived from original sources (reference works, books, articles, anything written by another person) must be clearly identified as such. If you use the author's own words, those words must, of course, be surrounded by quotation marks and provided with either a parenthetical citation or a footnote. It should also go without saying that complete accuracy in transcribing the words of another author is necessary, and the standard forms must be used to indicate any additions or deletions. Such material may be paraphrased, however, in which case quotation marks should not be used. A paraphrase is a rendering in your own words of another's writing, but it is not merely a word-for-word translation. A reordering of the thought as well as a change in wording is necessary to make the paraphrase legitimate. If the material you thus paraphrase consists only of information that is commonplace in the field and which occurs without variation in all the sources, no citation need be provided. But if your paraphrase contains obscure or detailed facts which either are or may be the product of the author's individual researches, or if your paraphrase contains ideas that either are or may be products of the author's individual mental processes, then credit must be given in a citation and sometimes even in your own text. A few examples may be helpful in illustrating these directions.

MATERIAL WHICH IF PROPERLY PARAPHRASED NEED NOT BE CITED

1. Original Version
“John Keats was born on the 31st of October, 1795, the first of a family of five children, one of whom died shortly after birth.” [from: Walter Jackson Bate, John Keats (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1963), p. 1]

Proper Paraphrase:
John Keats was born on October 31, 1795. He was the oldest of five children, only four of whom survived.

Faulty but not Plagiaristic Paraphrase:
John Keats saw the light on the thirty-first day of October in the year 1795 of the Christian era, the eldest sibling of an array of five offspring, a number tragically lessened by the departure from this world of one child only a brief time after he had first entered it.

Explanation:
In the proper paraphrase the wording and word order have been changed except where the original represented an all but mandatory pattern. The facts of Keats' birth and parentage are well known and do not differ from one source to another; it is therefore not necessary to indicate the source of this information in a citation. The faulty paraphrase is not plagiaristic, but does constitute unnecessary expansion of simple materials.

2. Exceptions:
There is no need to cite common platitudes or ideas that have been held for a long time such as “Virtue is its own reward” or “Sports are good for growing children.” Conversations do not need to be cited unless they are with someone of special knowledge in a field who has given you some special information or insight into a problem you are dealing with. There are times, however, when one will want to credit a friend or someone else who has made a special contribution to your work.

MATERIALS WHICH EVEN IF PROPERLY PARAPHRASED MUST BE CREDITED TO THEIR SOURCES

1. Original Version:
“He was still returning frequently to see the Elgin Marbles, and perhaps within recent months had made the tracing that survives, in the Keats House in Rome, of the Sosibios Vase” (Bate 510).

Proper Paraphrase:
During this period Keats often revisited the Elgin Marbles, and there is some reason to believe he may have made a tracing of the original urn, the so-called Sosibios Vase (Bate 510).

Improper (Plagiaristic) Paraphrase:
Keats continued to go back often to inspect the Elgin Marbles, and maybe in the same time had produced the drawing that is now extant, in the Keats House in Rome, of the Sosibios Vase.

Explanation:
In the proper paraphrase considerable changes have been made both in wording and ordering; the detailed facts surrounding the composition of Keats' “Ode on a Grecian Urn” are not generally known; they represent the results of a specific researcher's investigations, and the writer of the proper paraphrase has accordingly credited them to Bate by means of a parenthetical citation. (This citation could also be done through a footnote.) In the improper paraphrase, the writer merely translated Bate's words, usually for the worse. He has failed to give Bate credit due him for the results of his research.

2. Original Version:
“It is in every way a more considerable poem than the 'Nightingale.' This is not to say that it is superior. For it achieved its success partly because it is more limited in what it tries to say” (Bate 510).

Proper Paraphrase:
In Bate's view the “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is not a better poem than the “Ode to a Nightingale,” but, he implies, it is successful because it is both more conscious and more limited in its aim (510).

Improper (Plagiaristic) Paraphrase:
The “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is in all aspects a more thought out work than the “Nightingale.” This is not to assert that it is better. For it attains its victory in part because it is less extensive in what it seeks to declare.

Explanation:
The writer of the proper paraphrase has significantly altered Bate's wording; because the opinions expressed are the particular views of Bate, his name is associated with them in the text. In such circumstance, both the reasoning and the words of the original author are his property and the use of either must be credited. The parenthetical citation (or footnote) is provided in order to give specific information as to the place where Bate's opinion may be found. The writer of the improper paraphrase has slavishly attempted to translate Bate's comment and has failed to provide any indication of the source.

3. Paraphrasing Lecture Material
If material comes from a lecture or discussion in a course, particularly the former, you should give credit to the lecturer. If your notes are inexact, consult the lecturer or do your own research to substantiate the point.

Conclusion
The reason for clear documentation may be simply stated: clear documentation gives proper credit to the work of others and permits your reader to check at its source the evidence on which your work is based. As in scientific writing, writing in other fields should permit the reader to follow your experiment and arrive at the same results. The comparison is not exact, but it may serve to illustrate the nature of the task of writing. College and graduate school courses prepare one for the time when others than teachers and fellow students will be interested in your work and will want to follow it up.