Plagiarism: Don't let it happen to you!

Plagiarism occurs when someone deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging the source.

Plagiarism is cheating. Examples include;

• Purchasing a paper online and submitting it as your own.
• Copying your roommate’s paper (or parts of it) and submitting it as your own.
• Paraphrasing ideas, data or writing from someone else’s work without properly acknowledging the original source.

There is nothing simple about plagiarism;

• Ideas are often a mixture of one’s own ideas, those we read, and those we discuss with friends, making it hard, or even impossible, to sort out who owns what.
• Writers who are learning a new field often try out ideas and phrases from other writers in order to master the field. This process allows them to learn, and is a far cry from stealing.
• Expectations for citing sources vary among contexts, cultures, and readers, making it very difficult to understand all of the rules.

Plagiarism can occur in many forms besides writing: art, music, computer code, mathematics, speeches, and scientific work can also be plagiarized. 

Council of Writing Program Administrators. (2019, December 30). Defining and avoiding plagiarism: The WPA statement on best practices. https://wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sd/news_article/272555/_PARENT/layout_details/false

Mott-Smith, Jennifer A. (2020, August 7). In D. Loewe & C. Ball (Eds.), Bad ideas about writing (p. 5.12). LibreTexts. https://scu.wiki/3Zm1Z4v

Northwestern University. (n.d.). How to avoid plagiarism. https://www.northwestern.edu/provost/policies-procedures/academic-integrity/how-to-avoid-plagiarism.html

NYU Libraries. (2022, December 16). Plagiarism and how to avoid it. https://guides.nyu.edu/plagiarism

Turnitin, LLC. (2017, May 18). What is plagiarism? Plagiarism.org. https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism