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✍️ Writing & Research Grades 5–12
Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is using someone else's words or ideas without giving credit. It's easy to avoid once you know three skills: quoting, paraphrasing, and citing.
Learn How it works
Kinds of plagiarism
- Copying sentences without quotation marks and a citation.
- Patchwriting: swapping a few words but keeping the original sentence structure.
- Using ideas or facts that aren't common knowledge without a citation.
- Turning in work someone else wrote, or your own old paper without permission.
Quote, paraphrase, summarize
| What it is | Cite it? | |
|---|---|---|
| Quote | The exact words, in quotation marks | Yes |
| Paraphrase | One passage in your own words and your own sentence structure | Yes |
| Summary | The main idea of a longer passage, much shorter | Yes |
| Common knowledge | Facts most people know and can find in many sources (George Washington was the first president) | No |
How to paraphrase in 4 steps
- Read the passage until you understand it.
- Cover it up.
- Write the idea from memory, in your own words.
- Compare with the original. Fix any copied phrases, and add a citation.
When you're not sure whether to cite, cite.
Examples See it done
Original (from a made-up science article): “Teenagers who sleep fewer than eight hours a night are more likely to struggle with attention and memory during the school day.”
Plagiarized (patchwriting): Teens who sleep less than eight hours a night are more likely to have trouble with attention and memory during school.
Good paraphrase: Getting under eight hours of sleep can make it harder for students to focus and remember what they learn in class (Nguyen and Hale 212).
Good quote: Nguyen and Hale warn that short sleep makes students “more likely to struggle with attention and memory” (212).
Practice Check yourself
Answer, then tap Check. You get an explanation either way.