Talk:Kathryn Magnolia Johnson

Close paraphrasing

Hi Flemcj16, I had to revert your recent additions to the draft because it was too closely paraphrased from this source. Close paraphrasing is when someone takes a passage and makes only minor changes to the content, changing some of the wording but keeping the same overall format and structure. It's seen as a form of plagiarism and a copyright violation, even if you did not intend for it to be as such.

Here's an example of close paraphrasing:

Original source:

Johnson and coworker Addie Waites Hunton (1875-1943) were sent by the YMCA to France during World War I to observe the treatment of black soldiers in segregated U.S. Army units. Johnson and Hunton returned home to publish a detailed account of their trip in their book, Two Colored Women with the American Expeditionary Forces (1920). Their account is the most detailed description of the cultural climate in France toward African Americans. It also highlighted the ill treatment of African-Americans during the war.

You wrote:

They were sent to France on the behalf of the YMCA during World War I to observe the treatment of black soldiers in segregated U.S. Army units. After Johnson and Hunton returned form their trip, the published a detail account of their findings in their book, Two Colored Women with the American Expeditionary Forces (1920). Their book described the cultural climate in France towards African Americans. The book also included the poor treatment of African Americans during World War I.

Not much was changed here other than things like "they" for "Johnson and coworker Addie Waites Hunton", some content was placed in a new sentence, and similar. It's just too close to the source material. An OK way to rephrase this particular section would be something like this:

During World War I the YMCA sent Johnson and Addie Waites Hunton to France so they could observe black soldiers in segregated U.S. Army units. They would eventually publish their findings in the 1920 book Two Colored Women with the American Expeditionary Forces, where they described the poor treatment and living conditions of black soldiers, along with the France's cultural climate concerning African Americans.

This still isn't perfect since it does stick a little too close to the prior version but it deviates enough that it would likely be OK enough. You can use this if you like and work on further improving it from the source material. I will have to let your instructor Fosterab know about this. Before progressing further with this, I would like you to take the plagiarism and copyright training module, as it gives an overview of this. Shalor (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:15, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

• It looks like more of it was taken from the source than had initially been detected, so that has been removed as well. Please be careful about this! Shalor (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:32, 20 February 2018 (UTC)