Plagiarism is defined in UNCG's Academic Integrity Policy as follows:
Plagiarism: Representing the words of another as one's own in any academic exercise. Plagiarism may occur on any paper, report, or other work submitted to fulfill course requirements. This includes submitting work done by another, whether a commercial or non-commercial enterprise, including web sites, as one's own work.
a. Failure to cite references: includes intentional or obvious failures to properly cite sources.
b. Submitting, as one's own, work done by or copied from another: includes work done by a fellow student, work done by a previous student, or work done by anyone other than the student responsible for the assignment.
UNCG takes plagiarism very seriously. A student who is found guilty of plagiarism can receive a penalty ranging from having to re-do the assignment to failure of the assignment or course, and even expulsion from the university.
So it's essential that you as a student understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
Now, to help make sure that you understand what is meant by plagiarism, here are a few situations to examine. Consider each one carefully, then decide if you think the situation is an incident of plagiarism or not.
1. John is running out of time to complete his term paper. In a panic, he finds a term paper site on the web and purchases a paper. He makes a few minor changes, put his name on it, and turns it in as his own work.
Is this plagiarism?
This is plagiarism. John did none of the work on the paper he bought, but tried to take credit for it.
John was running out of time. He felt like he couldn't do the work himself, so he plagiarized someone else's. But he had other options.
He could have gone to his teacher and explained the situation. He could have tried to write at least something -- it might not have been his best work but it would have been HIS work.
John would have been better off taking responsibility for his procrastinating, rather than resorting to plagiarism.
2. Susan is working on a paper for her environmental biology class. She feels a little overwhelmed by the class, and isn't confident of her writing ability. In doing research for the paper, she finds some material in a book that says exactly what she's trying to get at in her paper. She copies the material word-for-word into her paper, without quotation marks or a footnote. She says to herself: "They said it much better than I ever could."
Is this plagiarism?
This is plagiarism. Susan should have put the material quoted word-for-word in quotation marks, and she should have cited the source.
Susan didn't think she was a good writer, and so she didn't feel comfortable using her own words. Do you ever say to yourself:
"What
do I know about this?"
"My writing sucks."
"No one wants to read what I have to say."
Negative feelings about ourselves and our abilities are one factor that can lead to feeling pressure to plagiarize. Remember, your professors don't expect you to write perfectly. You're still learning. They DO expect you to do your best and to do it in your own words.
Susan could have spoken to her professor about her concerns about her writing abillity. She could have also visited UNCG's Writing Center for help with integrating her sources into her paper appropriately.
3. Jerry is surfing the web looking for material for his paper on the legalization of marijuana. When he finds good information, he copies it and pastes it into his Word document, without citing the source. He says to himself: "The stuff on the web isn't copyrighted or anything, it's all fair game."
Is this plagiarism?
This is plagiarism. Jerry needs to cite his sources whenever he uses words or ideas other than his own.
Jerry believes that everything on the web is uncopyrighted and therefore "fair game". In fact, much of the material on the web is copyrighted. Furthermore, it doesn't matter if the material is copyrighted or not. If you didn't write it, cite it!
4. Natalie is writing a paper on the colonization of the New World. In her opening paragraph she states: "Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492." When proofreading her paper, she wonders: "Hmm, should I cite that?" but she decides not to. "That's something everybody knows!"
Is this plagiarism?
This is not plagiarism. The fact that Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492 is an example of what is called "common knowledge". Other examples of common knowledge include:
A good test for whether or not something is common knowledge is to pay attention to how often you find the same assertion repeated. If you see the same information in five or more sources, you can be confident that it is considered common knowledge.
Common knowledge does not have to be cited. But if you are in doubt about whether or not a fact is common knowledge, go ahead and cite!
Better to cite when you don't have to, than not cite when you should.
5. Javier is doing research on the political situation in Haiti. He reads several books and articles on the subject. One idea from his reading really strikes him and so he uses that idea as the thesis of his paper, without giving credit to the idea's originator.
Is this plagiarism?
This is plagiarism. You must cite not only the words of others, but also the IDEAS of others when you use them in your own paper.
Javier would not have to use quotation marks, because he did not directly quote the idea word-for-word, but he should give a citation for the source of the idea.
What Javier did was to paraphrase what he had read. As we'll see soon, when we learn more about paraphrasing, an acceptable paraphrase always cites the original.
You may find in the course of writing a paper that, after you have lived with an idea long enough, it seems to become your own. This is natural, but it's something to guard against.
Keep careful notes while doing your research -- matching up authors and their ideas -- so that you don't make this mistake.
