Plagiarism: Plagiarism

Plagiarism is when you take credit for work someone else did.

Plagiarism is using another person's words or ideas without giving them credit for their work.

If you treat another person's words or ideas as if they were your own, you are plagiarizing.

Examples of Plagiarism

• Turning in a paper written entirely, or partially, by another person. 

• Turning in a paper you wrote for another assignment is self plagiarism. 

• Copying someone else's words and not citing them properly is plagiarism.

• Copying someone else's ideas without citing them is also plagiarism. 

Unintentional plagiarism is when someone fails to give credit to the original source, either through a failure to cite the source or a paraphrase that is not in their own words.

Tips to Avoid Unintentional Plagiarism

• Take good notes on all of your sources. Make sure you have recorded the author, title and publisher of all works you plan to use in your research.

• When paraphrasing, remember to cite your source and to place any borrowed words in quotation marks.

• When in doubt, cite every source you used in your research using the proper format.

Plagiarism is academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty is disrespectful of yourself and others. Academic dishonesty prevents you from learning essential skills and knowledge that you need to succeed in college and in the future. 

Plagiarism can harm your academic record and future educational and job opportunities. 

Plagiarism weakens your critical thinking and writing skills.  

Intentional plagiarism is when someone intends to actively deceive the intended audience and passes off of someone else’s work as their own.

Tips to Avoid Intentional Plagiarism

• Give yourself plenty of time to conduct research and write your assignment. Most students commit plagiarism when they have run out of time to properly write their paper.

• Do not be afraid to ask for help! If you need assistance finding or evaluating sources for a paper, contact the Reference Desk (229-333-7149).

• If you working in a group, be sure to give proper credit for the work done by other group members. Claiming sole credit for group work is still plagiarism!