What Is Plagiarism?

Many people think of plagiarism as copying anothers work, or borrowing someone elses original ideas. But terms like copying and borrowing can disguise the seriousness of the offense. Plagiarism has many forms, none of which are academically acceptable. The term plagiarism comes from the atin plagiarius ! kidnapper. "ccording to the Merriam# $ebster %nline &ictionary, to plagiari'e means( ). to steal and pass off *the ideas or words of another+ as one,s own -. to use .another,s production/ without crediting the source 0. to commit literary theft 1. to present as new and original an idea or product deri2ed from an e3isting source 4n other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud, which means that it in2ol2es both stealing someone elses work and lying about it afterward. But can words and ideas really be stolen5 "ccording to 6nited 7tates law, the answer is yes. 4n the 6nited 7tates and many other countries, the e3pression of original ideas is considered intellectual property, which is protected by copyright laws 8ust like original in2entions. "lmost all forms of e3pression fall under copyright protection as long as they are recorded in some media *such as a book or a computer file+. "ll of the following are considered e3amples of plagiarism( turning in someone elses work as your own working together with another person and then submitting the work as your own copying words or ideas from someone else without gi2ing credit changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without gi2ing credit failing to put a 9uotation in 9uotation marks gi2ing incorrect information about the source of a 9uotation copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the ma8ority of your work, whether you gi2e credit or not copying and pasting materials directly from the 4nternet without citing the source Note that changing the words of an original source is not sufficient to prevent plagiarism! 4f you ha2e retained the essential idea of an original source, and ha2e not cited it, then no matter how drastically you may ha2e altered its conte3t or presentation, you have still committed plagiarism. Most cases of plagiarism can be a2oided by accurately citing sources. 7imply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed:and pro2iding your audience with the information necessary to find that source:is usually enough to a2oid plagiarism. ;owe2er, an assignment should be more than 8ust a series of 9uotes. 4n your work for this class and for the writing assignment in particular, plagiarism is unacceptable. 7ubmitted papers that recei2e a high plagiarism score on the 7afe"ssignment originality report will be se2erely penali'ed.
More details about plagiarism are found on the next page Modified by Al Trujillo from Turnitin.com and Research Resources January 2 ! . Turnitin allo"s free distribution and non#profit use of this document in educational settings.