III. How Not to Plagiarize
B. Types and Examples of Plagiarism
Type 2: "Mosaic" Plagiarism or "Patchwriting"*
Language closely based on a source but with a few words
changed around, is plagiarism. Either use an exact quote (with
quotation marks and citation), or express the point in your own
words and cite the source for the idea.
Example
Original Source
Feminist literature de-emphasizes the state and instead focuses
on gender relations, specifically on the political and economic
marginalization of women within states and in the world as a
whole.
[From: Allen Sens and Peter Stoett,
Global Politics: Origins, Currents, Directions (Toronto,
ON: Nelson Thompson, 2002), 109.]
Mosaic Plagiarism
Feminist scholarship shifts the emphasis from the
state to a focus on gender relations, especially the
political and economic marginalization of women within states
and in the world at large.
Proper Acknowledgement
EITHER
1. Quote and cite:
"Feminist literature de-emphasizes the state and instead focuses
on gender relations, specifically on the political and economic
marginalization of women within states and in the world as a
whole" (Sens and Stoett
2002, 109).
OR
2. Paraphrase properly and cite:
Feminists direct our attention to the ways in which women are
relegated to secondary status both domestically and
internationally (Sens and Stoett
2002, 109).
* The term "mosaic plagiarism" comes
from Cheryl Iverson et al., ed., The American
Medical Association Manual of Style 9th ed. (Baltimore,
MD: Williams and Wilkins, 1998),
10= 4. The AMA Manual of Style defined mosaic plagiarism
as, "Borrowing the ideas and opinions from an original source
and a few verbatim words or phrases without crediting the
author. In this case, the plagiarist intertwines his or her own
ideas and opinions with those of the original author, creating a
'confused, plagiarized mass.'" Thus, mixing a source's words and
ideas with your own, without clearly acknowledging which words
and ideas came from the source, is mosaic plagiarism. The term
patchwriting was coined by Rebecca Moore Howard, who defines it
as, "copying from a source text and then deleting some words,
altering grammatical structures, or plugging in one-for
one-synonym substitutes." Rebecca Moore Howard, "A Plagiarism
Pentimento," Journal
of Teaching Writing 11, no. 2 (1992): 233-245 [233].
Howard argues that patchwriting should be distinguished from
plagiarism, but it falls within the definition of plagiarism
used at Concordia and most universities.