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I'm working on a term paper that will directly lead into my Master's thesis, so I'm concerned about whether I'm committing plagiarism here. There are two issues: (1) Reproducing a list of technical terms, and (2) reproducing an equation with explanations of the different terms.

(1) I want to include a list of technical terms that were already enumerated in a research article. Here is how that article is written:

However, at the very beginning of the manure life cycle, the fresh animal waste can be characterized with its primary components, the feces and urine. Fecal material contains a wide spectrum of organic compounds such as undigested litter, living microorganisms, carbohydrates, proteins, fatty acids, celluloses, hemicelluloses and lignin (Clark et al. 2005; ASAE American Society of Agricultural Engineers 2003).

Source: Li, C., Salas, W., Zhang, R., Krauter, C., Rotz, A., & Mitloehner, F. (2012). Manure-DNDC: A biogeochemical process model for quantifying greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions from livestock manure systems. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 93(2), 163–200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-012-9507-z

To what extent do I need to paraphrase this list in order to include it in my thesis? Would changing the order of the list items be enough to constitute a paraphrase?

(2) I want to include an equation from another source, which also explained each of the terms in that equation. Here is how that article is written:

dC/dt = CNR * μ * (S * kl + (1-S) * kr) * [C] [Eq. 3]

Where [C] is organic C content (kg C/ha), t is time (day), S is labile fraction of organic C compounds in the pool, (1-S) is resistant fraction of organic C compounds, kl is specific decomposition rate (SDR) of labile fraction (1/day), kr is SDR of the resistant fraction (1/day), μ is temperature and moisture factor, CNR is C/N ratio reduction factor, SDR is 0.074, 0.074, 0.02, 0.33, 0.04, 0.16 and 0.006 (1/day) for very labile litter, labile litter, resistant litter, labile microbes, resistant microbes, labile humads, and resistant humads, respectively.

Source: Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space. (2017). DNDC Scientific Basis and Processes (Version 9.5). University of New Hampshire.

How should I go about paraphrasing the equation and "Where..." statements?

The reason I am confused about this is because MIT's anti-plagiarism resource does not seem to cover these topics: MIT Academic Integrity Handbook: Paraphrasing

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  • The first box can be easily rewritten. For the equation I think doing what you have done here is perfect. Alternatively see Anonymous Physicist's answer.
    – Alchimista
    Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 8:29
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    Paraphrasing doesn't help you avoid plagiarism. Only citation does.
    – Buffy
    Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 10:55
  • My understanding is that insufficient paraphrasing or quotation (i.e. copying someone's exact wording without enclosing it in quotation marks) would constitute plagiarism with or without citation
    – frandude
    Commented Nov 22, 2020 at 3:08

1 Answer 1

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If you enclose the text in quotation marks and cite the original source, it is not plagiarism. If it is a list, a quotation makes more sense than paraphrasing.

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  • Before concluding that the second sentence here is correct, OP would do well to check his/her institution's thesis handbook/style guide/mark scheme. It may be, e.g., that the thesis is supposed to be understandable by a bachelor's graduate in any STEMM subject, in which case OP would do well to explain what words like "litter", "hemicelluloses", and "labile" mean, rather than just quoting them.
    – user128581
    Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 13:48

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