Plagiarism defined in dictionaries as "the wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work.” (1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary; The Oxford English Dictionary) Plagiarism

What does all that mean? When you “appropriate” something, you take it without the owner’s permission or agreement. When you imitate something, you copy it. When you “purloin” something, you steal it from its rightful owner.

It means you’ve broken the law!

When you plagiarize… you’re stealing the words, ideas, or thoughts of another person you’re pretending you did the work that was actually done by someone else you’re not giving credit to the rightful owner of “your” work

When you plagiarize… You can fail an assignment and/or class. You can be expelled from school. You can be sued and/or prosecuted. And there’s more… Many colleges will never accept a student who plagiarized while in High School. Many employers won’t hire a person who plagiarized in school at any level. Many employers will fire a person discovered to be plagiarizing others’ work.

You don’t need to plagiarize It is perfectly legal and acceptable to use the work of others, as long as you give the rightful owner credit for the work! Giving credit to the original owner of work is called “citing” the work. Citing work can be done in many ways, all of which are legal and give proper credit to the original owner of the work.

Remember the Definition? "the wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work.” (1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary; The Oxford English Dictionary) Did you notice the words in parentheses? This is called “parenthetic notation.” Inside parentheses, it tells the original sources from which I copied the definition for plagiarism.

Parenthetic Notation for print sources The author’s name The date of the original publication The name of the original publication in which the quote appeared The title of the article (if applicable) Directly after using or quoting someone’s work in a document, show in parentheses: When parenthetic notation is used, be sure to cite the source more fully in a bibliography or reference page at the end of the document.

Parenthetic Notation for Internet sources The author’s name The name of the website The date on which you accessed the information Directly after using or quoting someone’s work in a document, show in parentheses: When parenthetic notation is used, be sure to cite the source more fully in a bibliography or reference list or page at the end of the document.

Don’t forget the Quotes (“c”) Always put others’ words inside quotes when you use them in your work When quoting famous lines, the parenthetic notation should only include: -- the original speaker’s/writer’s name -- the year the original words were spoken -- The name of the publication, movie, play, or article in which the original words were written/spoken

How to Cite In MLA Style Information in documents should be cited in either MLA or APA style MLA stands for Modern Language Association, an academic group that has created a standard by which essays, research papers and professional articles are written and referenced. Information for citing in MLA style can be found online at:

How to Cite In APA Style Information in documents should be cited in either MLA or APA style APA stands for American Psychological Association, an academic group that has created a standard by which all publications in the social and behavioral sciences are written and referenced. APA has been adopted as a standard for many high schools and higher learning institutions Information for citing in APA style can be found online at:

Examples of Parenthetic Notation It is important for each of us to recognize that we control our fears. So often, a person avoids a situation because of what they think will happen. When courage pushes people to do something of which they were afraid, they often discover that “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” (Franklin Delano Roosevelt; 1933) In 2010, the Texas Board of Education adopted new Social Studies standards that might change what appears in textbooks in other parts of the country. The meetings that were held to define the new standards were divided along party lines (liberal- vs- conservative) and these ideologies show in their views of U.S. History. (Revisionaries: How a group of Texas conservatives is rewriting your kids' textbooks; Washington Monthly, January/February )