Question #8f2e9
2 Answers
At the very least, I think the plagiarized passage should be placed within quotation marks, and the source should be given. This way it is clear that the wording is not the contributor's.
I think that paraphrasing is also acceptable, with the source included. I think that's what most people do.
When editing an answer that's been plagiarized (i.e. reusing another author's words or expressions without properly citing a source), it's best to paraphrase the plagiarized section, re-writing it in your own words.
Why paraphrase instead of copying text and citing a source?
At Socratic, our vision for the future of learning online is that a student can type in any question they have and they'll find a helpful answer tailored exactly to that question.
To make this vision a reality, we believe it's important that the answers written on Socratic are original — that is, they've been custom-created for the answers on the site.
Why? Writing a custom answer (instead of reusing something that's already been written) means the student is getting specific, helpful information that's relevant to their question, not hunting around for what they need.
This doesn't mean you can't reuse a useful phrase or even a really helpful sentence here and there (while citing your source).
But it does mean that answers should primarily be brand-new content written just for that student.
For more on our philosophy about original content, check out the blog post we wrote about it here.
