Read this text excerpt and then explore the different examples of plagiarism and effective citation presented below.
A number of historians of science fiction have claimed that women did not write for the science fiction pulp magazines. Curtis Smith, for example, says that women were “present only as voluptuous and helpless objects on the lurid pulp covers.” In the last few decades, however, several scholars have traced the history of women and the early science fiction pulps to suggest that women were indeed present.
Jane Donawerth, “Illicit Reproduction: Clare Winger Harris’s ‘The Fate of the Poseidonia’” in Daughters of Earth, edited by Justine Larbalestier [Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2006], p. 20.
| Meaning | Word for word repetition of a phrase or extended portion of a source without quotation marks. |
| Example 1 | While a number of historians of science fiction have claimed that women did not write for the science pulp magazines, it turns out they were wrong. |
| Example 2 | While a number of historians of science fiction have claimed that women did not write for the science pulp magazines, it turns out they were wrong (Donawerth 20). |
| Proper Usage | While "a number of historians of science fiction have claimed that women did not write for the science pulp magazines," it turns out they were wrong (Donawerth 20). |
*Also referred to as Insufficient Paraphrase or Patch Writing
| Meaning | Mosaic plagiarism, also referred to as insufficient paraphrasing, or patch writing, occurs when a work contains a series of phrases from other sources without citation. This type of plagiarism often involves substituting words with synonyms, omitting occasional words/phrases, and retention of the same sentence structure of the original source. |
| Example 1 | A number of investigators of science fiction have said that women did not write for the science fiction popular magazines, although they did appear as sexy and helpless objects on the racy pulp covers. More recently, several scholars have traced the history of early science fiction pulps and now suggest that women were present. |
| Example 2 | A number of investigators of science fiction have said that women did not write for the science fiction popular magazines, although they did appear as sexy and helpless objects on the racy pulp covers. More recently, several scholars have traced the history of early science fiction pulps and now suggest that women were present (Donawerth 20). |
| Proper Usage | Earlier analysis of women’s participation in science fiction writing was flawed. Once thought to have been confined to mere visual objects to attract male readers, women, according to more careful analysis, actually participated in much wider and more active ways in science fiction authorship and narratives (Donawerth 20). |
| Meaning | The representation of another’s idea(s) without attribution to that source. |
| Example 1 | Earlier analysis of women’s participation in science fiction writing was flawed. Once thought to have been confined to mere visual objects to attract male readers, women, according to more careful analysis, actually participated in much wider and more active ways in science fiction authorship and narratives. |
| Proper Usage | Earlier analysis of women’s participation in science fiction writing was flawed. Once thought to have been confined to mere visual objects to attract male readers, women, according to more careful analysis, actually participated in much wider and more active ways in science fiction authorship and narratives (Donawerth 20). |
Generally, you will not need to cite “common knowledge” in your papers. If you can find the information in three sources, especially a general reference source like CREDO or the Encyclopedia Britannica, it is probably common knowledge. If you are not sure, a good rule of thumb is that if you learned the fact while doing research, from any source, cite it.