Plagiarism Courtesy:
Plagiarism To steal and pass off the ideas or words of another as one’s own: use another’s production without crediting the source Source: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition
Plagiarism Possible consequences: Re-do the assignment Automatic zero for the grade Detention Fail the class Suspension Expulsion
Avoid Plagiarism Put the text aside, try to remember the main ideas, then paraphrase by writing it in your own words. Put exact text passages in quotation marks. Give credit in both instances with appropriate citations and a references page.
Identifying Plagiarism
Original Passage At the start of the Great Depression, many Americans wanted to believe that the hard times would be only temporary. Plagiarism or Not? At the beginning of the Great Depression, a lot of Americans wanted to think that the hard times would be only temporary.
Original Passage Devices in the iPod range are primarily digital audio players, designed around a central click wheel — although the iPod shuffle has buttons also. Plagiarism or Not? An iPod is an MP3 player that lets you choose and play songs to listen to using a click wheel (or on older versions, buttons).
Original Passage He was a very silent man by custom. Plagiarism or Not? He was usually a quiet person.
Original Passage A letter of thanks is a courteous acknowledgment of a gift or of something that was done for you. Plagiarism or Not? A thank you note is a polite acknowledgment of a present or something nice someone did for you.
Is this Plagiarism?
You had basketball practice and did not have time to do your homework. Your best friend offers to let you copy his. He takes a picture of his completed paper and sends it to you in a text.
Is this Plagiarism? You have to write a paragraph about photosynthesis for science, but you don’t quite understand it. You find a paragraph on a web site that explains it perfectly. You copy it on your worksheet in your own handwriting.
Is this Plagiarism? You copy and paste a short paragraph from a web page into your Word document. To make it longer, you add one more sentence of your own at the end.
Is this Plagiarism? You spend half and hour searching the web for the perfect image for your research paper. You finally find one and paste in onto the title page of your paper.