Stop, Thief! Avoiding Plagiarism by Paraphrasing 
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[00:00:14.50] PROFESSOR: We all realize that stealing is wrong. You wouldn't steal a car, right? You wouldn't steal a wallet. What about stealing someone's words? A lot of people don't realize that plagiarism, or using someone else's words without giving them credit, is also stealing. 
[00:00:30.13] When it comes to plagiarism, You can avoid being a thief by paraphrasing. When you are finished with this tutorial, you will be able to define paraphrasing, identify the main idea of a passage, and apply the two-thirds/one-third rule to your writing. 
[00:00:53.83] Most people think of plagiarism in terms of blatant intentional theft, things like buying a paper from the internet, having a friend write a paper for you, or turning in a paper that you wrote for a previous class. It is true that these are all cases of plagiarism, and they are usually done with the intent to cheat. However, plagiarism can also occur unintentionally when you fail to correctly give credit to a source or pass off direct quotes from a source as your own words. 
[00:01:25.56] It can be tricky to avoid these more subtle types of plagiarism. In order to do so, one of the main skills you need to know is how to paraphrase. What is paraphrasing, you may ask? Simply put, paraphrasing is restating the main ideas from an information source in your own words while giving credit to the creator of those ideas. 
[00:01:46.83] Let's review for a moment. Can you identify which of the following is not plagiarism and explain why? Using a direct quote from a source without putting it in quotation marks, restating an author's idea in your own words and citing your source, turning in a paper written by a friend as your own. 
[00:02:11.37] If you said that restating an author's idea in your own words and citing your source is not plagiarism, you are correct. This is not plagiarism, because if you do this, you are paraphrasing correctly. 
[00:02:25.17] Now that you know the definition of paraphrasing, you probably want to know more about how to paraphrase. An important part of paraphrasing is being able to isolate the main idea of a source. This is important because if you don't understand what the author is trying to say, you won't be able to state it in your own words. 
[00:02:43.61] Let's try an example. Here is a passage from a book about Mexico. "Humans have lived in what is now Mexico for more than 10,000 years. The earliest people were bands of hunters who killed giant mammoths on the central plateau. In about 7000 BC, the hunters learned how to grow corn. The hunting societies in Mexico gradually became farming societies. Farming gave the people stability and allowed them to develop advanced civilizations." 
[00:03:18.66] Let's brainstorm some possible main ideas. If there are ideas that are best expressed in the author's own words, we'll leave them in quotation marks. Here are some main ideas in this passage. The first people in Mexico were hunters. After gaining the ability to grow corn, people eventually became farmers. Farming allowed them to develop advanced civilizations. 
[00:03:45.49] Let's take another moment to review. Why is it important to identify the main idea of a passage? If you said that you will not be able to rephrase an author's ideas in your own words if you do not understand what the author is trying to say, you are correct. This is a very important part of paraphrasing. 
[00:04:09.21] Now that you know that identifying main ideas is important to paraphrasing, it is time to put those ideas in your own words. If you feel that an idea is best communicated in the author's words, it is OK to use them, but you must put quotation marks around them and cite your source. 
[00:04:25.63] However, a paper should not be made up entirely of quotes. A good rule of thumb to use is at least two-thirds of your writing should be your own words and one-third or less should be quoted from the authors of your sources. For example, a paragraph using our main ideas from the previous exercise might look like this. 
[00:04:45.69] The first inhabitants of Mexico were hunters. After they developed the ability to grow corn, they became farmers. Stein states that the development of farming was very important to the people of Mexico, because it "allowed them to develop advanced civilizations." 
[00:05:02.36] Notice that when a direct quote from the article was used, it was placed in quotation marks. The rest of the paragraph consists of ideas from the original article restated using the writer's words. 
[00:05:16.15] Let's check the ratio of our words to the author's words. A word count reveals that there are 41 words total in this paragraph, 35 of which are ours and six of which are the author's. This paragraph definitely follows the two-thirds/one-third rule. 
[00:05:38.10] Let's review one more time. What is a good ratio of your words to the author's words? One-third your words and two-thirds author's words, one-half your words and one-half author's words, two-thirds your words and one-third author's words, one-quarter your words and three-quarters author's words? 
[00:06:01.31] If you chose two-thirds your words and one-third author's words, you are correct. This is a good rule of thumb to use when paraphrasing. 
[00:06:11.74] Plagiarism, or stealing other people's words, is a serious problem in research and writing, and even when done unintentionally, it is wrong. Plagiarism can have serious consequences, including failing an assignment, failing a class, or even being expelled from school. In order to avoid plagiarism, it is important to know how to paraphrase correctly. 
[00:06:34.42] As you learned in this tutorial, paraphrasing is restating the ideas from an information source in your own words. The two main steps in paraphrasing correctly are summarizing the main idea of your source in your own words and writing with an appropriate ratio of your words to the source author's words. 
[00:06:54.54] Learning how to paraphrase correctly is an important part of the research and writing process. Following the steps outlined in this tutorial will help you avoid plagiarism throughout your career. 
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