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Q&A What exactly is the "five (consecutive) word" plagiarism rule?

You need to remember that plagiarism is not just about words; it can also be about ideas. So a key point here is that even if you change virtually all of the words, you still need to make sure yo...

posted 7y ago by Mark Jackson‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:47:52Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27171
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Mark Jackson‭ · 2019-12-08T02:47:52Z (almost 5 years ago)
You need to remember that plagiarism is not just about **words** ; it can also be about **ideas**.

So a key point here is that even if you change virtually all of the words, you still need to make sure you cite the source that you are paraphrasing. If you do not cite the source, then it is plagiarism no matter how many words you change.

I have seen students claim to use, say, three or four important books (i.e., by referring to them in footnotes), but then actually take all of the ideas line by line, or paragraph by paragraph (but **not** word for word), from a website which they do not in any way cite.

This is, unambiguously, plagiarism, even if it is "in their own words". Moreover, there is usually a very clear reason **why** the student didn't cite that website; they didn't want me to know they had used the website. So it isn't an **accidental** failure to give credit to the real author, but a deliberate one.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-03-15T15:07:15Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 7