Plagiarism is considered theft!
Plagiarism is taking another person's ideas and words and passing them off as your own. There is unintentional and intentional plagiarism.
Unintentional:
- Not being sure if something is common knowledge and accepting that it is.
- Not understanding that you are plagiarizing when you change a few words or sentences that were taken from another source.
- Now writing down the correct source citation information and matching that information with your notes.
Intentional:
- Taking another person's ideas and failing to give them credit
- Copying a sentence, paragraph or text from another source and not giving credit to the author
Ways to Avoid Plagiarism:
When Quoting:
- Always put quotes in quotation marks.
- Make sure you cite accurately where the quote came from.
- Use Parenthetical citations directly after the quote - make sure you have the correct page number in the parenthetical citation.
When Paraphrasing:
- Stop, think, and repeat to yourself the main points.
- Make sure you put the information in your own words and remember to credit the original source.
- Be sure you are not just rearranging or replacing words.
- Double check what you wrote by rereading the original.
- Make sure your use parenthetical citations directly after the quote.
Things to Remember:
- Write down your source information as soon as you realize you will be using the source.
- Remember to number your source (card) information.
- Match the note card to the source card by the correct number
- Being unorganized with your notes could lead to plagiarism if you cannot remember who wrote which piece of information
- Make sure you always give credit where credit is due
- Schedule enough time to do the research so you will not be rushed
- Never use another student's paper as your own
- Never surf the web for papers you can purchase
WHEN IN DOUBT - ALWAYS CITE YOUR SOURCE!
