What it is and how to avoid it Plagiarism What it is and how to avoid it

What is plagiarism? 1. plagiarism noun [mass noun] the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own. (From The Oxford Dictionary of English in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses)

What is plagiarism? 2 plagiarism noun copying , infringement of copyright , piracy , theft , stealing ; informal cribbing . (From The Oxford Paperback Thesaurus in English Dictionaries & Thesauruses)

What is plagiarism? 3 Mizner, Wilson If you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research. (From The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations in Quotations)

Plagiarism in the news http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4420845.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4257479.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7370922.stm

Guidelines on Plagiarism

Actions that might be seen as plagiarism Buying, stealing or borrowing an assignment Using the source too closely when paraphrasing Paying someone to write your assignment Building on someone’s ideas without referencing Copying from another source without referencing (on purpose or by accident)

What is common knowledge? Common knowledge is information your average reader would know. How do you determine if something is common knowledge? Ask yourself if you knew the information already. If you didn't, the information is not common knowledge. Even so, common knowledge is a tricky issue because what is common knowledge for you may not be common knowledge for someone else. The best rule is when in doubt, reference

Common knowledge or interpretation? In many sources, common knowledge facts are mixed with analysis, interpretation, and opinion. A commentary on common knowledge must be referenced, e.g. If your source says that operating the space shuttle program is an expensive project, it would not need citation, since it is common knowledge. However, if your source uses the word wasteful instead of, or in addition to expensive, that is interpretation and would need to be cited.

Plagiarism This is taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as your own. If you are caught you could be disqualified from taking your assignment and therefore fail your course Which of the following could be classed as plagiarism in an assignment? Cutting and pasting a paragraph from a book without acknowledging where it came from Inserting a photograph found on the internet Using some material from a mates assignment

Plagiarism answers Cutting and pasting a paragraph from a book without acknowledging where it came from Yes most definitely ,unless it is quote that you acknowledge the author of + include the full reference in your bibliography. Inserting a photograph found on the internet This is copyright rather than plagiarism which usually stays with the photographer. Try to use websites that are open source or from sites that specialise in images. Be careful searching with Google images - check what site the original image is from. Using some material from a mates assignment Yes, you cannot use materials from someone else’s assignment and pass it off as your own.

Avoiding plagiarism In order to avoid plagiarism, you must give credit when: Using another person's ideas, opinions, or theories. You use facts, statistics, graphics, drawings, music, etc., or any other type of information that does not comprise common knowledge. You use quotations from another person's spoken or written word. You paraphrase another person's spoken or written word.