Plagiarism

Plagiarism

What it is and how to avoid it

What it is:  Plagiarism is using another person's work without acknowledgment, making it appear to be one's own.

How to Avoid it: Ideas, words, pictures, or other intellectual content, taken from another source must be acknowledged in a citation that gives credit to the source.

This is true no matter where the material comes from, including the Internet, other students' work, unpublished materials, or oral sources.

Intentional and unintentional instances of plagiarism are considered instances of academic misconduct and are subject to disciplinary action such as failure on the assignment, failure of the course or dismissal from the university.

It is the responsibility of the student submitting the work in question to know, understand, and comply with this policy.

Some Examples of plagiarism if no citation is given:

• an idea or opinion, even when put into one's own words(paraphrase)
• a few well-said words, if these are a unique insight
• many words, even if one changes most of them
• materials assembled by others, for instance quotes or a bibliography
• an argument
• a pattern of ideas
• graphs, pictures, or other illustrations
• facts
• all or part of an existing paper or other resource

(This list is not meant to include all possible examples of plagiarism)