Plagiarized Example 1:

There are multiple benefits to peer mentoring. The ones most commonly cited are that they provided general advice and some form of emotional support, encouragement, motivation, or help with personal issues. It helps if peer mentors have friendly and approachable as well as relatable, and are also students at the university. All of this can help students to become more integrated into the university.

• Missing citations.
• There is no indication that many of the words and all of the information provided here were borrowed from a published source.

 

Plagiarized Example 2:

Quantitative and qualitative data from research revealed that the majority of students felt peer mentors helped them to adjust to university, gave academic and career guidance, provided emotional and other personal assistance, and were friendly, relatable and accessible.

• Missing citations.
• While the content has been adequately paraphrased, there is no specific indication of who originally provided this information.
• Credit must be given to the original source of the information; simply stating “Research says ...” may indicate that you are borrowing information, but the audience should be able to find and verify your sources for themselves.

Plagiarized Example 3:          

According to Yomtov et al. (2017) the most commonly cited benefits of the peer mentors were that they provided general advice, as well as some form of emotional support, encouragement, motivation, or help with personal issues. The authors further add that the mentees also frequently described their mentors as being friendly and approachable as well as relatable because the mentors were also students at the university. In addition to the qualitative responses, the ratings of the peer mentors showed that most students rated the interpersonal qualities of the peer mentor highly, felt the mentors helped integrate them into the university, and provided academic, career, and emotional support (Yomtov et al., 2017, p. 38).

• This example is plagiarized because, while the original author is cited, there is no indication that the exact words have been borrowed. It has the appearance of a paraphrase or summary, which is misleading to an academic audience.

Plagiarized Example 4:

According to Yomtov et al. (2017), the most frequently mentioned benefits of the peer mentors were that they gave general advice, as well as some kind of emotional support, encouragement, motivation, or assistance with personal issues. The mentees often described their mentors as friendly, approachable, and relatable as the mentors were also students at the university. Apart from the qualitative responses, the ratings of the peer mentors also revealed that the majority of students rated the interpersonal skills of the peer mentor highly, felt the mentors helped them to integrate into the university, and gave academic, career, and emotional support (p. 38).

• This is not a good paraphrase. It is an example of patchwriting plagiarism.
• Although the original author is cited, and some of the words have been changed, most of the source’s original words and sentence structures have been copied (substituted words are bolded, and the adjusted phrase is underlined).

 

 

Incorrect citation is sometimes considered plagiarism:

Peer mentoring can be highly beneficial for students at any level of their university studies. Peer mentors commonly provide academic and career guidance, along with emotional support and even some assistance with personal issues. Such aid can be invaluable for students, especially those who may be new to university and are struggling to adjust to unfamiliar requirements. In fact, student mentees found mentors helped them to integrate into the university. Feeling more integrated through mentorship with friendly, accessible, relatable students can go a long way to achieving successful completion of one’s degree programme (Yomtov et al., 2017, p. 38).

• While there has been an attempt to paraphrase and cite, there is no indication of where the borrowed material and the writer’s own ideas begin and end.
• It is a good scholarly practice to make clear what material is borrowed specifically, as doing otherwise may mislead readers into believing that either the entire passage is borrowed, or just the last sentence.

Acceptable Example 1:

Peer mentoring has been said to be beneficial for student mentees:

The most commonly cited benefits of the peer mentors were that they provided general advice, as well as some form of emotional support, encouragement, motivation, or help with personal issues. The mentees also frequently described their mentors as being friendly and approachable as well as relatable because the mentors were also students at the university. In addition to the qualitative responses, the ratings of the peer mentors showed that most students rated the interpersonal qualities of the peer mentor highly, felt the mentors helped integrate them into the university, and provided academic, career, and emotional support (Yomtov et al., 2017, p. 38).

• Correct in-text quotation with citation using APA style.

 

Acceptable Example 2:

Peer mentoring brings several benefits for student mentees. According to Yomtov et al. (2017),

The most commonly cited benefits of the peer mentors were that they provided general advice, as well as some form of emotional support, encouragement, motivation, or help with personal issues. The mentees also frequently described their mentors as being friendly and approachable as well as relatable because the mentors were also students at the university. In addition to the qualitative responses, the ratings of the peer mentors showed that most students rated the interpersonal qualities of the peer mentor highly, felt the mentors helped integrate them into the university, and provided academic, career, and emotional support (p. 38).

• Each of the two examples above is formatted as an indented block as more than four lines are being quoted.
• Note that when the author is not mentioned in introducing the quote, as in the first example, the name and year of publication appear with the pager number within the brackets at the end. In the second example, the author and date are mentioned in introducing the quote, so at the end, only the page number is placed in brackets.

 

Acceptable Example 3:

Peer mentoring brings several benefits for student mentees. According to Yomtov et al. (2017), “The most commonly cited benefits of the peer mentors were that they provided general advice, as well as some form of emotional support, encouragement, motivation, or help with personal issues” (p. 38), The researchers also reported that mentees “felt the mentors helped integrate them into the university, and provided academic, career, and emotional support” (Yomtov et al., 2017, p. 38).

• In example 3, individual quotations are less than four lines long, so the borrowed words are indicated through the use of quotation marks. Note that the author has been cited twice in the two different ways indicated in the previous examples.

 

Acceptable Example 4:

Quantitative and qualitative data from Yomtov et al. (2017) revealed that the majority of students felt peer mentors helped them to adjust to university, gave academic and career guidance, provided emotional and other personal assistance, and were friendly, relatable and accessible.

• In this paraphrase, the writer cites the source and makes significant changes to the language and sentence structure of the original text while not changing the overall meaning.
• It is important to note that this is only one example; a different writer could capture the essence of the same excerpt using different words and sentence structures. In this example, the writer used fewer words than in the original text, but paraphrases can be as long or longer than the original text.