Description:

Plagiarism is the practice of using another person’s words or ideas without providing proper credit and presenting them as one’s own work.

Purpose:

Understanding and avoiding plagiarism will improve the quality of student’s writing and avoid academic dishonesty and fraud.

Procedure:

• Keep track of and document all sources used.
• Keep your notes, sources, and writing separate to avoid accidentally using uncited content.
• Cite your sources. Anything that is not common knowledge or your own ideas requires a citation. When in doubt, cite it.
• Use quotations for any words or phrases pulled directly from the source.
• Paraphrasing must be cited. Paraphrasing changes the words and sentence structure of source material, but not the idea.
• Make clear distinctions between your own ideas and your source’s.
• Material from your own past work must also be cited to avoid self-plagiarism.
• Use a plagiarism checker to compare your work against existing sources.

Considerations:  

• Plagiarism is not limited to text. Using media such as images, video, and music without providing credit also constitutes plagiarism.
• Common knowledge, information generally known by the reader, does not require citation.

Level: Beginner

Resources:

• “Avoiding Plagiarism.” A Research Guide for Students. A Research Guide, 2014. Web. 30 June 2016. <http://www.aresearchguide.com/6plagiar.html>.
• http://www.plagiarism.org/
• http://en.writecheck.com/ways-to-avoid-plagiarism/
• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/1/