Plagiarism is the practice of copying and using someone else’s ideas, word arrangements and thoughts without giving proper attribution to the author or source of the information. Plagiarism is literary and intellectual theft, whether it is intentional or unintentional. Plagiarism carries serious consequences of academic failure and expulsion and questions professional integrity. There are three ways to avoid plagiarism; cite, cite, cite.
What Can Happen - Is It Worth It?
Affect student's entire academic career
The offense may need to be reported on college applications
Affects potential job interests
Receive a failing course grade
Removed from sports and extracurricular activities
Take a mandatory plagiarism course
Colleges can rescind their educational offers
Not graduate
Immediate suspension and/or expulsion
Court proceedings and other legal ramifications
Types of Plagiarism Direct Plagiarism: Word for word duplication of someone else’s work without reference or attribution as well as the use of videos, images, music, photos without permission and/or citing sources. You cannot copy and paste someone’s content into your own paper and call it your own. You are also plagiarizing when quotation marks are not used and or the material is misquoted. Paraphrasing Plagiarism: Words are changed, rearranged or synonyms are used with the basic sentence structure intact. The idea cannot be used without proper citations.
Self Plagiarism: Self Plagiarism is any prior work that is used in some form, either in full or in part, without attribution. Citing the work must be done the same way as any other author/source of information. Older papers and assignments must be cited even if it is your own work. Accidental Plagiarism: Accidental plagiarism is misquoting or unintentional paraphrasing the information, or using similar words. Accidental plagiarism is still taken seriously. It is your duty as a researcher to properly and carefully document your sources. * The Common Knowledge Exception * Common Knowledge are facts that are most likely known by many people, however, if you use something directly from the source, you must cite it.
Plagiarism can be avoided simply by citing everything whether the information is paraphrased, quoted, referenced. Any information that is used the source must be cited. Citing sources is important for academic integrity and to avoid the serious ramifications of plagiarism. Proper documentation establishes your credibility as a writer. Plagiarism and copyright infringements carries legal consequences and can be avoided. When in doubt, cite your sources!
Take good organized notes when you are doing research.
Cite sources using one of the standards either MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian etc)