A Definition of Plagiarism
College students: practice academic integrity and avoid cheating
Dec 8, 2006
What is plagiarism? Obviously, if a student downloads a college essay on the downfall of Macbeth and hands it to his or her English Composition teacher, that's cheating. But sometimes there are gray areas where a student may not know that their actions are plagiarism.
According to Dictionary.com, plagiarism is "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." See? That wasn't plagiarism. I used someone else's words to help make my point, but I gave credit to the author.
Believe me, there are plenty of good reasons to avoid plagiarism, especially because professors know how to prevent plagiarism. Here is a detailed definition of plagiarism for you to familiarize yourself with:
Plagiarism is the act of taking credit for someone else's work. In college, this usually involves writing, but other kinds of work can be plagiarized as well, including music, ideas, and artwork. Taking credit for work that someone else created is stealing and is a violation of intellectual property law. So plagiarism is more than just a violation of school policies and a teacher's trust. It is an illegal activity that isn't so different than stealing someone's iPod or wallet.
What actions are considered plagiarism? Any time someone uses another author's words or ideas without correctly giving them credit, that's plagiarism. Here are some examples.
- Putting one's name on someone else's paper. This is the most obvious example. Whether it came from one of the many college essay plagiarism websties that buy and sell term papers or from a friend, this is plagiarism.
- Putting one's name on someone else's phrases. One doesn't have to steal a whole paper for it to be plagiarism. Sometimes students get lazy and throw in a few paragraph or sentences from a book or website. If the original author is not credited for the writing, it's plagiarism.
- Putting one's name on something that's paraphrased. A paraphrase is a rewording of a phrase, sentence, or paragraph that essentially says the same things. Paraphrases of someone else's work need to be cited just as a quote would. It's still someone else's idea, even if the words are changed.
- Taking someone else's idea. This happens in academia sometimes. A graduate student has a great idea, and a professor steals it and writes a paper using the student's idea. Bad bad bad. It doesn't matter that words weren't stolen; it's the stealing of an idea that makes this a violation of intellectual property law.
- "Recycling" your old material. Tweaking the contents of one assignment to meet the requirements of another assignment is both plagiarism and against college policies. (And professors talk to each other about their students' work, so don't try this!) There are some cases where a student wants to expand upon an idea from another paper in another class, and that's okay as long as you discuss this with the professor and get permission, and as long as it's truly an original work.
- Failure to put a quote in quotations marks, or providing incorrect information about where a source came from. These are sloppy errors that are probably not malicious. But technically they are still plagiarism. Learning how to cite sources correctly is an important skill! if you do not know how to do this well, talk to a professor or your college writing center.
Related articles:
- Good reasons to avoid plagiarism
- Choosing a good term paper topic
- College essay writing help
- How do deal with stressful deadlines
- Professor pet peeves
