What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism happens when we take someone else's ideas, words, theory, statistics, facts, or opinions and act as though we created or identified it for ourselves.
Plagiarism can be illegal, and taking someone else's ideas has disciplinary consequences and damages your academic integrity. Failure to acknowledge sources of information properly may constitute plagiarism and can result in disciplinary action. For an explicit definition of plagiarism, see the Boston University Academic Conduct Code.
The follow is excerpted from Plagiarism.org:
What Is Plagiarism?
"Many people think of plagiarism as copying another's work or borrowing someone else's original ideas. But terms like "copying" and "borrowing" can disguise the seriousness of the offense:
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, to "plagiarize" 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
- to commit literary theft
- to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source
In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.
All of the following are considered plagiarism:
- turning in someone else's work as your own
- copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
- failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
- giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
- changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
- copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)
Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources.
What is plagiarism?. Plagiarism.org. (n.d.). https://plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism
Plagiarism Tutorial
OHIO Libraries has a great plagiarism tutorial with videos, short quizzes, and informative information. Visit their platform to go through the short informative lesson on plagiarizing.
Avoiding Plagiarism Through Citations
How do we avoid plagiarizing? A great place to start is being thorough with citations. By using citations, your reader or audience and find and identify the resources you have used. Most importantly, citations give credit to the authors of quotes or ideas you have used in your writing.
Practice Your Understanding of Plagiarism
Practice your understanding of when citations are needed to protect your scholarly integrity and prevent plagiarism.
These short quizzes help build our understanding of when citations are needed and preventing plagiarism:
