Plagiarism

Plagiarize/Plagiarise
to appropriate ideas, passages, etc., from
another work or author

Collins English Dictionary

Plagiarism Issues

Plagiarism is not only an ethical issue, it is a legal issue.

Plagiarism is cheating.

Pay attention to what you write and decide to publish.

What is plagiarism?
• Turning in someone’s work as your own

• Copying words from someone else without giving credit

• Copying ideas from someone else without giving credit

• Failing to use quotation marks

• Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation

http://www.plagiarism.org
What is not plagiarism?
• Your own thoughts

• Generally known information, e.g.:

– The sun rises on the East.

– John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United

States in 1960.
Avoid plagiarism
• If you use an author’s exact sentence(s), you must use quotation marks around
the borrowed material

• Even if you have cited the source, you still commit plagiarism if you don’t use
quotation marks

• If you need to mention a long text, it is recommended to paraphrase the original

writing
When must we use citations?

• When the information, words, or ideas are not your own.

My Teacher always
says “Cite your sources!”
(Teacher, 2015).
All of the following are considered plagiarism:

• Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving
credit (changing a word or two)

• Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of
your work, whether you give credit or not

http://www.plagiarism.org
Paraphrasing
“You commit plagiarism if you half-copy the author’s sentence—either by
mixing the author’s phrases with your own without using quotation marks or
by plugging your synonyms into the author’s sentence structure.”

Hacker, D. (1999). A writer's reference. Bedford/St. Martin's.

Citing Quotations and Borrowed Ideas

If your paper is written in APA , you should have:

- In-text citations (the author’s name, year of publication)

- A reference page (in alphabetical order) that gives detailed publication

information about sources used in the paper
Tips

• Cite all references (in-text and full)

• Use quotation marks when needed

• Paraphrase

• Take notes and collect the information of the sources you need to cite
Links
www.grammarly.com

www.plagiarism.org

www.copyscape.com

www.duplichecker.com
References
Collins (n.d.). In Collins English Dictionary Online, Retrieved August 2, 2015,

from

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/plagiarise?showCookie

Policy=true.

Hacker, D. (1999). A writer's reference. Bedford/St. Martin's.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., et al. (2010). The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers.

9th ed. New York: Longman.

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and Johnson, J. (2014). The Allyn & Bacon

Guide to Writing. 7th ed. New York: Longman.