Unintended plagiarism in one of my essays?
Hi,
(I'm a second year English student)
I've just finished and submitted an essay, initially I was very pleased with it. However, I then began to look over the secondary sources I had consulted whilst writing it and I am now concerned that my essay contains similar material.
At no point do I plagiarise either of the essays word for word because I did not set out to steal other people's work. I consider similar themes, evidence (although this piece of evidence in one that is included in all studies of the topic and novel together) as two, in particular one of the essays that I had read at the time. Some of the points within the essay I directly attribute to being similar to the other two essays. I quote, within quotation marks, the claims and use them to make my argument. However, there are times when one of the essays - a dissertation on the exact topic my exam question happens to be about- makes similar points to me which I do not attribute to being theirs. This is because I would argue that the point is something which I thought about myself and knew as a result of seminar discussion or as a combination of all my reading around the topic because I knew this point prior to reading these essays. I think the problem is is that because the topic is quite specific the secondary reading around the topic covers everything, particularly in the case of the dissertation which being a fifty page odd work covers most points.
What particularly worries me is that it turns out that I have used the same quotation - from a separate essay which I also read- which was used in one of the two essays I previously refer to (and later cite but for a different topic of the essay). This work is a big study of the age which is referred to by many other essays. I make a similar point - the quotation is a generalisation about the particular era- as the second author makes but it is definitely not the same. I build on the original work's quotation. The only reason why it may appear that i have purely lifted this quotation from the work, which I did not: I read and considered the original source, is because this secondary work also uses the quotation and I quote from this secondary essay.
Basically I'm worried that it appears that I may have been overly influenced by the ideas of others, although this was not my intention and my work reads distinctly differently to all three works (although they consider the same themes and at times make similar claims). Many of the points raised in the two other essays I independently knew and my point is similar but not the same. I've already submitted the essay and the deadline has passed so I'm wondering what to do?
Sorry it is so long. Please let it be noted that I do have a very anxious personality and fear plagiarism every time I submit an essay! The only difference this time is the extent to which one of the essays makes points that i make and that I appear to have used the same quotation to a similar effect as one of the essays I've read.
(I'm a second year English student)
I've just finished and submitted an essay, initially I was very pleased with it. However, I then began to look over the secondary sources I had consulted whilst writing it and I am now concerned that my essay contains similar material.
At no point do I plagiarise either of the essays word for word because I did not set out to steal other people's work. I consider similar themes, evidence (although this piece of evidence in one that is included in all studies of the topic and novel together) as two, in particular one of the essays that I had read at the time. Some of the points within the essay I directly attribute to being similar to the other two essays. I quote, within quotation marks, the claims and use them to make my argument. However, there are times when one of the essays - a dissertation on the exact topic my exam question happens to be about- makes similar points to me which I do not attribute to being theirs. This is because I would argue that the point is something which I thought about myself and knew as a result of seminar discussion or as a combination of all my reading around the topic because I knew this point prior to reading these essays. I think the problem is is that because the topic is quite specific the secondary reading around the topic covers everything, particularly in the case of the dissertation which being a fifty page odd work covers most points.
What particularly worries me is that it turns out that I have used the same quotation - from a separate essay which I also read- which was used in one of the two essays I previously refer to (and later cite but for a different topic of the essay). This work is a big study of the age which is referred to by many other essays. I make a similar point - the quotation is a generalisation about the particular era- as the second author makes but it is definitely not the same. I build on the original work's quotation. The only reason why it may appear that i have purely lifted this quotation from the work, which I did not: I read and considered the original source, is because this secondary work also uses the quotation and I quote from this secondary essay.
Basically I'm worried that it appears that I may have been overly influenced by the ideas of others, although this was not my intention and my work reads distinctly differently to all three works (although they consider the same themes and at times make similar claims). Many of the points raised in the two other essays I independently knew and my point is similar but not the same. I've already submitted the essay and the deadline has passed so I'm wondering what to do?
Sorry it is so long. Please let it be noted that I do have a very anxious personality and fear plagiarism every time I submit an essay! The only difference this time is the extent to which one of the essays makes points that i make and that I appear to have used the same quotation to a similar effect as one of the essays I've read.
Original post by copril
I really need some advice on this, do I dismiss my concerns as over worrying ( what friends - one of which does the same course as me- and my mum are saying to do having read and compared the essays in question) or what?
You haven't explained what has happened which is the reason for the lack of replies. Has the university approached you? If so contact the Student Union for further advice.
Have your planning notes and selection of reading to demonstrate that which you consulted.
Ah sorry I was just really panicky typing that I found it difficult to be clear. The uni haven't approached me , I've only recently submitted it. It's just I've noticed that the points and argument made are very similar to one of my sources. I don't reference all of their ideas being the same as mine as the majority of them I had as a result of seminar discussion/my head/result of all the research I did. And I've used the same quotation from another work that one of my sources did completely accidentally and didn't reference that they also used it. Point is I can't tell whether my worries are the result of my over thinking and comparing ( which people who've read through my essays for me say it is) or whether I've actually got something to be concerned about.
Original post by tradingmyheartforyours
You haven't explained what has happened which is the reason for the lack of replies. Has the university approached you? If so contact the Student Union for further advice.
Have your planning notes and selection of reading to demonstrate that which you consulted.
Have your planning notes and selection of reading to demonstrate that which you consulted.
Didn't realise I hadn't quoted you. I've replied above, thanks for your response
Original post by copril
Ah sorry I was just really panicky typing that I found it difficult to be clear. The uni haven't approached me , I've only recently submitted it. It's just I've noticed that the points and argument made are very similar to one of my sources. I don't reference all of their ideas being the same as mine as the majority of them I had as a result of seminar discussion/my head/result of all the research I did. And I've used the same quotation from another work that one of my sources did completely accidentally and didn't reference that they also used it. Point is I can't tell whether my worries are the result of my over thinking and comparing ( which people who've read through my essays for me say it is) or whether I've actually got something to be concerned about.
You should be fine then. Does the uni use turnitin ? Just forget it.
Original post by tradingmyheartforyours
You should be fine then. Does the uni use turnitin ? Just forget it.
It does use turnitin which is why I'm worried I don't really understand how it works. If you read through the essays altogether I think it's obvious that I haven't just nicked ideas but I'm worried that turnitin is going to highlight loads of my essay as similar (because we cover similar points and there are words we both use - due mostly to the nature of the topic and how close the areas of discussion are) and this will get me accused of plagiarism when it was never my intention to be dishonest.
You're fine. Sometimes I get annoyed because I feel like I've thought of a completely awesome and original point to put in my essay, and then I do secondary reading and realise it's been said before! I'm sure it happens a lot, don't stress about it. There's only so many things you can say about a really precise topic in regards to a solitary text, and most of it has been said before.
Copril, if the uni uses turnitin it might be a problem. The system is working the following way: once the file is uploaded, it is stored in the system. All further plagchecks of the same file/paragraph/sentence/ will show 100% plagiarism as somebody else's work.
I have already faced this problem several times.
Did you check you paper through any other plag checker?
I have already faced this problem several times.
Did you check you paper through any other plag checker?
Original post by yamdude
Copril, if the uni uses turnitin it might be a problem. The system is working the following way: once the file is uploaded, it is stored in the system. All further plagchecks of the same file/paragraph/sentence/ will show 100% plagiarism as somebody else's work.
I have already faced this problem several times.
Did you check you paper through any other plag checker?
I have already faced this problem several times.
Did you check you paper through any other plag checker?
No, I've been tempted to but I've only submitted it to turnitin once.
If you're worried use the student turnitin checker (http://en.writecheck.com) it's the same company as turnitin and allows you to check before submission and your essay won't be put into their database (and thus won't be flagged again when you officially submit and essay) I used to do this for all my essays at uni.
Original post by yamdude
You should better forget about turnitin, because of the reasons I described above. There are much more better solutions to check your paper for plagiarism without copying it to the system. I can suggest you some when I get back to my work place.
With write check (turn it ins student version) your essay doesn't get copied onto the system/database
Original post by copril
The problem with the online detectors though is is if says the essay is all good I can stop worrying and it will be fine. But if it says I have plagiarised then I'll be worried worse than I am now because it's been submitted so I can't change anything :/
If it detects plagiarism you could possibly email the tutor and say you think you cited incorrectly and could you change it for a 5% reduction in marks
corpil, that's true. Usually plag detectors can show you the sources along with highlighted similarities, so you will have an idea of what is wrong with your paper. You can click on the highlighted area of plagiarized text(if any), see the matches and write your professor about improper citation. If the % of plagiarism is less than 5-10%, then just relax.
If you have used 'essays' written by other students as a 'source', or copied nifty statements from random websites and utilised big chunks of that material to pass off as your own, then you will get caught.
If you have properly summarised the work of established academics/writers and their opinions/ideas/observations and REFERENCED them properly, then you have nothing to be worried about.
If you have properly summarised the work of established academics/writers and their opinions/ideas/observations and REFERENCED them properly, then you have nothing to be worried about.
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