Plagiarism - the Basics
Introduction | Plagiarism | Citing Sources
One of the main ideas of research is to study what others have published and form your own opinions. When you quote people -- or even when you summarize or paraphrase information found in books, articles or Web pages -- you must acknowledge the original author.
If you use someone else's words or ideas without crediting them, you are committing a type of theft called plagiarism. Plagiarism can be as obvious as turning in another person's paper or project as your own, or as sly as simply paraphrasing sections of various works. It is also incorrect to copy text from Web pages or other sources and paste it into your paper without identifying the original author.
How can you avoid plagiarism?
- Take clear, accurate notes about where you found specific ideas
- Write down the complete citation information for each item you use
- Use quotation marks when directly stating another person's words
- Always credit original authors for their information and ideas
It is important to know that activities that constitute plagiarism may differ from college to college and even from department to department in the same school. For example, the biology department may have a different policy than the English department. It is your responsibility to know Andrews University's policy as well as the policy for any class that you take.
A person can commit plagiarism intentionally or unintentionally. A student can be held responsible even if the act itself was unintentional.
The following examples are all considered plagiarism:
- Fraud: Submitting a paper written by someone else
- Patchwriting: Using words and phrases from one or more sources and patching them together in new sentences.
- Failure to Cite: Not acknowledging the sources of words or information.
- Failure to Quote: Not providing quotation marks for direct quotation.
Purchasing a paper on the web or from another person is an obvious example of intentional plagiarism. Failing to cite a source accurately or completely could be an example of unintentional plagiarism.
Understanding how to paraphrase correctly according to different writing styles will help avoid this kind of mistake.