(Reprinted with permission from Princeton University)
The first set of examples provides a range of textual plagiarism from verbatim copying to thorough paraphrasing. The second set of examples demonstrates plagiarism of a computer program. The comments that follow the examples offer guidance about how a source may be used and when a source must be cited.
Original source (text)
Alvin Kernan
The Playwright as Magician. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1979. pp.102-103.
From time to time this submerged or latent theater in Hamlet becomes almost overt. It is close to the surface in Hamlet's pretense of madness, the "antic disposition" he puts on to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from plucking out the heart of his mystery. It is even closer to the surface when Hamlet enters his mother's room and holds up, side by side, the pictures of the two kings, Old Hamlet and Claudius, and proceeds to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made, presenting truth by means of a show. Similarly, when he leaps into the open grave at Ophelia's funeral, ranting in high heroic terms, he is acting out for Laertes, and perhaps for himself as well, the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief.
Text example 1
Verbatim plagiarism, or unacknowledged direct quotation (lifted passages are in boldface type):
Almost all of Shakespeare’s Hamlet can be understood as a play about acting and the theater. For example, there is Hamlet's pretense of madness, the "antic disposition" that he puts on to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from plucking out the heart of his mystery. When Hamlet enters his mother's room, he holds up, side by side, the pictures of the two kings, Old Hamlet and Claudius, and proceeds to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made, presenting truth by means of a show. Similarly, when he leaps into the open grave at Ophelia's funeral, ranting in high heroic terms, he is acting out for Laertes, and perhaps for himself as well, the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief.
Comment
Aside from an opening sentence loosely adapted from the original and reworded more simply, this entire passage is taken almost word-for-word from the source. The few small alterations of the source do not relieve the writer of the responsibility to attribute these words to their original author. A passage from a source may be worth quoting at length if it makes a point precisely or elegantly. In such cases, copy the passage exactly, place it in quotation marks, and cite the author.
Text example 2
Lifting selected passages and phrases without proper acknowledgment (lifted passages are in boldface type):
Almost all of Shakespeare's Hamlet can be understood as a play about acting and the theater. For example, in Act 1, Hamlet adopts a pretense of madness that he uses to protect himself and prevent his antagonists from discovering his mission to revenge his father's murder. He also presents truth by means of a show when he compares the portraits of Gertrude's two husbands in order to describe for her the true nature of the choice she has made. And when he leaps in Ophelia's open grave ranting in high heroic terms, Hamlet is acting out the folly of excessive, melodramatic expressions of grief.
Comment
This passage, in content and structure, is taken wholesale from the source. Although the writer has rewritten much of the paragraph, and fewer phrases are lifted verbatim from the source, this is a clear example of plagiarism. Inserting even short phrases from the source into a new sentence still requires placing quotations around the borrowed words and citing the author. If even one phrase is good enough to borrow, it must be properly set off by quotation marks. In the case above, if the writer had rewritten the entire paragraph and only used Alvin Kernan's phrase "high heroic terms" without properly quoting and acknowledging its source, the writer would have plagiarized.
Text example 3
Paraphrasing the text while maintaining the basic paragraph and sentence structure:
Almost all of Shakespeare's Hamlet can be understood as a play about acting and the theater. For example, in Act 1, Hamlet pretends to be insane in order to make sure his enemies do not discover his mission to revenge his father's murder. The theme is even more obvious when Hamlet compares the pictures of his mother's two husbands to show her what a bad choice she has made, using their images to reveal the truth. Also, when he jumps into Ophelia's grave, hurling his challenge to Laertes, Hamlet demonstrates the foolishness of exaggerated expressions of emotion.
Comment
Almost nothing of Kernan's original language remains in this rewritten paragraph. However the key idea, the choice and order of the examples, and even the basic structure of the original sentences are all taken from the source. Although it would no longer be necessary to use quotation marks, it would absolutely be necessary to place a citation at the end of this paragraph to acknowledge that the content is not original. Better still would be to acknowledge the author in the text by adding a second sentence such as--"Alvin Kernan provides several examples from the play where these themes become more obvious"--and then citing the source at the end of the paragraph. In the case where the writer did not try to paraphrase the source's sentences quite so closely, but borrowed the main idea and examples from Kernan's book, an acknowledgment would still be necessary.
Original source (computer program)
Robert Sedgewick
The following program appears on page 118 of the textbook
Algorithms in C (Addison Wesley, New York, 1990)
quicksort (int a[ ], int 1, int r)
{
int v, i, j, t;
if (r > 1)
{
v = a [r]; i = 1-1; j = r;
for (;;)
{
while (a [++i] < v) ;
while (a [-j] > v) ;
if (i >= j) break;
t= a[ i ]; a[ i ] = a [r]; a [ r ] = t;
}
t = a [ i ]; a [ i ] = a [ r ]; a [ r ] = t
quicksort (a, l, i-1);
quicksort (a, i+1, r);
}
}
Computer program example 1
mysort (int data[ ], int x, int y) {
int pivot;
int i, j;
int temp;
if (y > x) {
pivot = data [ y ]; i = x-1; j = r;
while (1) {
while (data [ + + i ] < pivot) ;
while (data [ - j ] > pivot) ;
if ( i >= j) break;
temp = data [ i ]; data [ i ] = data [ y ]; data [ y ] = temp;
}
temp = data [ i ]; data [ i ] = data [ y ]; data [ y ] = temp;
mysort (data, x, i-1);
mysort (data, i+1, y);
}
}
Comment
This example is plagiarism because the student has borrowed the structure of the original program exactly, while changing only a few details that do not affect the meaning of the program. Though the program looks different to the untrained eye, it has exactly the same meaning as the original program. The student has made the following changes:
- Changed the names of the variables: a, l, r, v, and t are changed to data, x, y, pivot, and temp (respectively);
- Replaced the construct "for ( ; ; )" with the equivalent construct "while (1)"
- Changed the name of the procedure from "quicksort" to "mysort"
- Changed the indentation and the division of program elements between lines.
The student's action can be compared to copying a block of text from a reference book with an occasional change in wording.
Computer program example 2
#define Swap (A,B) { temp=(A); (A)=(B); (B)=(A); }
void mysort (const int * data, int x, int y) {
int temp;
while (y > x) {
int pivot = data [ y ];
int i = x-1;
int j = r;
while (l) {
while (data [ + + i ] < pivot) { /*do nothing*/ }
while (data [ - j ] > pivot) { /*do nothing*/ }
if ( i >= j) break;
swap (data [ i ], data [ y ];
}
swap (data [ i ], data [ j ];
mysort (data, x, i-1);
x = i+1;
}
}
Comment:
This example is also plagiarism. The student has made more changes to the program than in the first example, and some of this student's changes are even improvements to the program. Nevertheless, this student's program is clearly derived from the program in the textbook. The student's action in this case can be compared to paraphrasing a passage from a reference book.