What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty that can have serious consequences. However, plagiarism is something that you can avoid if you understand what it is, why it matters, and how you can use a variety of strategies to prevent plagiarism from happening.
Plagiarism defined
- Plagiarism involves representing any material that you obtained from another source as your own work.
- Plagiarism can also occur when you fail to acknowledge the source of any material, including text, ideas, structure, visuals, and other expressions and media.
- Plagiarism can occur intentionally and unintentionally.
Why does plagiarism matter?
- Individual integrity - Committing plagiarism can negatively impact your future academic and professional career.
- Institutional integrity - Plagiarism scandals can damage the reputation of your school and lessen the value of your degree.
Learn More: Books
The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagarism by Call Number: Online AccessISBN: 9780335241040Publication Date: 2010-01-01
Doing Honest Work in College by Call Number: Lewis Library Main Stacks PN171 .F56 L56 2004ISBN: 0226484726Publication Date: 2004-10-15
The Little Book of Plagiarism by Call Number: Lewis Library Main Stacks K1485 .P67 2007ISBN: 9780375424755Publication Date: 2007-01-16
Tips for Paraphrasing
- Take good notes - You won't be able to paraphrase effectively if you don't fully understand the material
- Keep track of your citation information - This will help you prevent unintentional plagiarism
- Use key words in your notes - Key words can help you recall how you want to use the text in your paper and what the key points are in the text. Since you'll often read material well before you start writing your paper, you'll want to leave a yourself a trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak, to help you recall main points and key ideas that you had.
- Check your paraphrase against the original - Make sure your paraphrase doesn't copy the original text's structure or rely too heavily on synonyms. You can use this online resource to check on how successful your paraphrase is: Paraphrase Self-Test
10 Most Common Types of Plagiarism
Habits that can lead to Plagiarism
In fact, many instances of plagiarism occur unintentionally. Intentional or not, any form of plagiarism is a serious offense. The following are some habits and practices that can lead to inadvertent plagiarism.
- Procrastination
- Failing to keep track of citation information
- Taking notes by copying directly from a text
If you are writing and researching at the last minute, you are more likely to make errors that can lead to plagiarism. You are also more likely to have a citation error or fail to cite a source if you don't take good notes and keep your source information organized and available.
What is Self Plagiarism?
Self-plagiarism defined
- Self-plagiarism occurs when an author does not let their readers know that they are using a previously published work.
- Self-plagiarism can occur when you submit multiple copies of the same paper, or portions of the same paper.
Why does self-plagiarism matter?
Say you submit a paper for a class and receive a good grade. Next semester you submit that same paper again for a different class and receive another grade. You just received two grades, but you only did the work once. Self-plagiarism is essentially a form of dishonesty.
Using Sources
Why use sources?
- Sources help you build your arguments.
- Sources help you verify your claims.
- Sources show that you are aware of the work of others in the field.
Research is a conversation among people in a given academic field. Sources are a way for you to participate in a research conversation since you are acknowledging and responding to the work of others in the field.
Online Resources & Campus Resources
- Citation Management Tool: RefWorks RefWorks is a tool you can use to collect, manage and organize research papers and documents. Read annotate, organize, and cite your research as well as collaborate with friends and colleagues by sharing collections. Using tools like "drag and drop" capability, "smart document recognition" and "Save To", upload documents, bibliographic metadata, and capture research from websites into your own personal research database which is saved on the web. Also use RefWorks to create simple bibliographies and papers formatted with in-text citations or footnotes.
- The Citation Project "The Citation Project is a series of research studies on source use. Their purpose is to provide data and analyses that can help with educators’ questions about plagiarism, information literacy, and the teaching of source-based writing. By collecting data and replicating or adapting the methods of other studies to analyze it, ongoing Citation Project research builds on and extends the work of other scholars, generating deeper and more nuanced understanding of source-based writing."
- Harvard Guide to Using Sources: Avoiding Plagiarism "...the Guide introduces you to the fundamentals of using sources in academic papers. You will be expected to understand these fundamentals as you write papers."
- Plagiarism.org "Plagiarism is a common (and often misunderstood) problem that is often the result of a lack of knowledge and skills. Our mission is to support the education community with a comprehensive set of resources to help students write with integrity."
- Understanding and Preventing Plagiarism: Strategies and Resources for Students and TeachersNote: This site has quality information, but we are not promoting accreditedschoolsonline.org parent website.