Plagiarism

Avoid Plagiarism: Understand It

To plagiarize is to take someone else’s work and pretend that it is yours. It refers not just to the written word but also things like other people’s ideas, interpretations, theories, and images. If you are found out you will face serious consequences in your academic career, but could also be guilty of breaking the law if what you plagiarized has been copyrighted.

Avoid Plagiarism: Cite Your Sources

This is the failsafe way to avoid the charge of plagiarism. Citing a source means you are acknowledging the author of the original work, and are thereby not claiming it as your own. Cite every source you have used in the course of your research, even those you don’t refer to directly. Include all the details needed to look up the source successfully, and set it out according to the citing convention your school or university prefers.

Avoid Plagiarism: Learn to Paraphrase

If you want to say something that is closely based on someone else’s writing, don’t copy out large chunks of their text but learn to paraphrase instead. This means you re-write what they have said using your own words, with the aim of expressing it more clearly or expanding on it. It does not mean simply rearranging their words in a different order.

Avoid Plagiarism: Use Quotation Marks

If you really do need to repeat what someone else has written because you can’t express it any better by paraphrasing it, make sure that you put it into quotation marks and cite the source fully. That way no one can accuse you of trying to pass it off as your own.

Source: Modern Language Association

Other Student Resources

Online Discussion Postings

Avoid Plagiarism

Making the Most of Online Chat Sessions

Avoid Isolation

Be Effective Within Virtual Workgroups

Researching Online