4.9 Using ideas directly from another
If you take an idea from someone else but you are neither quoting them nor paraphrasing any particular text of theirs, you must still indicate where you got the idea from. If you do not, you will appear to be claiming that the idea is your own, and if that is not so, then you will run the risk of plagiarism. Ideas can be plagiarised just as easily as words.
CITING AN IDEA FROM ANOTHER PERSON
… different societies. In analysing the very notion of what constitutes a legal system it is necessary, according to Hart, to distinguish between primary and secondary rules.8 Virtually all societies have an assortment of primary rules that govern conduct, but if a society is to be recognised as having a legal system as such, then it must also have secondary rules. Such rules relate to …
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8 H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 1994) 91–99.
It is sometimes permissible to drop the reference to the other person in your text, and simply indicate with a footnote that you are taking the idea from someone else.
CITING USING A FOOTNOTE ONLY
… different societies. In analysing the very notion of what constitutes a legal system it is necessary to distinguish between primary and secondary rules.8 Virtually all societies have an assortment of primary rules that govern conduct, but if a society is to be recognised as having a legal system as such, then it must also have secondary rules. Such rules relate to three different ways in …
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8 H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 1994) 91–99.
In both examples, the idea about primary and secondary rules has been taken from the English legal philosopher H. L. A. Hart, but there is no specific passage of his that is being quoted or paraphrased. Rather, the text in the examples is a summary statement of Hart’s much longer and more complex discussion in his book The Concept of Law.
If you fail to indicate that this is so (whether explicitly in the text with accompanying footnote or by footnote only), then you run the risk of committing plagiarism. Again, this is because you will be presenting these ideas about primary and secondary rules as your ideas when they are in fact Hart’s.
What if you think of an idea yourself but later find that someone else, say Bloggs, has already written about it? As Bloggs is not in fact your source for the idea, then it is not appropriate to cite Bloggs as if they were your source. However, it can be good scholarship to make reference to Bloggs as a further source for the idea. But where Bloggs is in fact your source, do not be tempted to pretend that your thought was merely congruent with, rather than derived from, Bloggs. That is plagiarism. The best way to avoid the risk of failing to cite an authority you did not even know about is to make sure you conduct thorough research at the outset.
