Plagiarism A.K.A. What NOT To Do in Academic Work

What is Plagiarism? Plagiarism is the act of using another person's ideas or expressions in your writing without giving credit to the source. In other words, plagiarism is copying information and not giving the author credit for it.

What is Plagiarism? To plagiarize is to give the impression that you have written or thought of something that you have “borrowed” from someone else. It is illegal, unethical, and if discovered, will result in a loss of credit for the project and perhaps a failure for the course.

What is Plagiarism? It is never all right to copy directly from another writer without putting the passage in quotation marks and identifying the author.

Plagiarism can take several forms: Copying any direct quotation from your source material without providing quotation marks or crediting your source Paraphrasing of a borrowed idea without documenting the source of the idea Copying another paper, either from someone else or your own paper from a previous assignment

You may avoid plagiarism by: Recognizing borrowed material with an introduction and citing the source page number; this is called using in-text citations Summarizing material by writing in your style and language and citing the source of the information Enclosing quotation marks around all material that is directly quoted and citing the source for the information

Here are Some Steps You Can Take… 1. Reread the original passage until you understand it. Mark important parts. 2. Turn the original over, and write your version on a separate paper WITHOUT looking at the original. 3. Check your version with the original to make sure that your version correctly expresses the information in a new way.

Here are Some Steps You Can Take… 4. Use quotation marks to identify any phrases you have borrowed exactly from the source. 5. Record the source (including the page) on your paper so that you can credit it.

What are the Differences Between Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing? Example: “The fact that Americans are getting heavier is hard to deny the day after Thanksgiving. But holiday binges have little to do with obesity. America’s weight problem is directly related to everyday choices that people make and the circumstances they live in,” stated Dr. Benjamin Reed (4).

What are the Differences Between Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing? Example: Dr. Benjamin Reed from the New York Times explained in a recent article that people’s choices of food has more to do with America’s obesity problem than simply overeating around the holidays (4).

What are the Differences Between Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing? Example: In a New York Times article, Dr. Benjamin Reed described how choices influence America’s problem with obesity more than overeating (4).