Plagiarism

Plagiarism = using another's ideas, words, or language without giving credit to the original source.

Plagiarism can occur when:

1. You take ideas from a source without using proper citation
   • When quoting or paraphrasing an author's ideas on a subject, you must cite him/her to give credit where credit is due.
2. You paraphrase too closely to the original
   • Taking the language and wording of a source without significantly changing it into your own language and wording is considered plagiarism. Remember that paraphrased information still needs to be cited.
3. You submit someone else's work as your own
   • In other words, turning in your sister's old college paper as your own or sharing the answers on a homework assignment or test with a friend would be considered plagiarism.

Some tips to avoid plagiarism:

·        Take the time to do the work on your own.  Researching and writing a paper takes time, so give yourself enough time to look up information and incorporate it into your paper using a formal citation style (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.)

·        Read the information, and then close the book.  Paraphrasing information while looking directly at the source is dangerous.  It's too easy to follow the sentence structure of the author.  Substituting a word here and there does not constitute accurate paraphrasing and is considered plagiarism!

·        Take careful notes. Make sure you cite where you got your outside information from and who originally said what.

·        Never copy and paste outside sources directly into your paper!  It is too easy to lose track of copied-and-pasted information from the Internet or to forget to place quotation marks around outside material.  Don't lose track of what needs to be directly quoted OR forget to paraphrase a "copy-and-paste job."  Even though sloppy research may cause inadvertent plagiarism, it is no excuse for lack of proper quoting, paraphrasing, and citing.