PLAGIARISM

by Lynn Richards

Mr. Fitzgerald, I believe that is how he

spells his name, seems to believe that
plagiarism begins at home.
-Zelda Fitzgerald

Plagiarism
Taking something from one man and
making it worse is plagiarism.
George A. Moore

The REAL Definition:

plagiarism - [pley-juh-riz-uhm]
An act or instance of using or closely imitating
the language and thoughts of another author
without authorization.
The representation of an authors work as
ones own, as by not crediting the original
author.
A piece of writing or other work reflecting
unauthorized use or imitation
Dictionary.com

UNINTENTIONAL
PLAGIARISM

The recent sixth edition of the MLA Handbook includes a chapter on plagiarism and makes the point
that plagiarism can be unintentional: "as when an elementary school pupil, assigned to do a report
on a certain topic, goes home and copies down, word for word, everything on the subject in an
encyclopedia" (69-70).
Even beyond elementary school, students may fail to understand how to quote accurately and
paraphrase effectively, and as indicated by the right-hand list below, it is possible for students to
plagiarism without realizing they are doing so. Whether a teacher judges an instance of plagiarism
as intentional or not depends on three factors: the age of the student, the nature of the offense, and
the scope of the offense.

Age of the student

A freshman or sophomore with little research experience might argue successfully that poor paraphrasing (for example) was
unintentional--the student simply did not know better. A junior or senior who has completed several research assignments should
know better, and for such students, carelessness or hastiness does not excuse plagiarism.

Nature of the offense

It is one thing to include a word used by an author without understanding what it means or to paraphrase inadequately so that a
paragraph sounds too much like the original. It is another to insert whole chunks of an author's work into an essay without
quotation marks.

Scope of the offense

One passage that is poorly paraphrased in an otherwise meticulous essay, or one citation that is missing, or even one short
quotation that is not enclosed in quotation marks--these are a far cry from an essay that is packed with such errors.

To generalize, a teacher would judge as unintentional the plagiarism of a younger student

committing any of the errors listed below on the right a handful of times in an essay A teacher
would judge as intentional the plagiarism of an older student committing such errors throughout an
essay. The point, of course, is not to embarrass or punish any student; it is to prepare all students
for the rigorous standards of American colleges, which assume that students understand plagiarism
and which treat all cases as intentional.

ALL of the Following are Con

sidered
Plagiarism
Turning in someone elses work as your own
Copying words or ideas from someone else
without giving them credit
Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
Giving incorrect information about the source
Changing words but copying the sentence
structure of a source without giving credit
Copying so many words or ideas from a source
that it makes up the majority of the work
Plagiarism.org

Plagiarism on the Internet

From Eduscapes.Com

10 TYPES of UNORIGINAL W
ORK
(from turnitin.com)

CLONE

SUBMITTING ANOTHERS WORK,

WORD-FOR-WORD,
AS ONES OWN

CTRL-C

CONTAINS SIGNIFICANT PORTIONS OF

TEXT
FROM A SINGLE SOURCE
WITHOUT ALTERATIONS

FIND-REPLACE
CHANGING KEY WORDS AND PHRASES
BUT RETAINING THE ESSENTIAL
CONTENT OF THE SOURCE

REMIX
PARAPHRASES FROM MULTIPLE
SOURCES, MADE TO FIT TOGETHER

RECYCLE

BORROWS GENEROUSLY FROM THE

WRITERS PREVIOUS WORK WITHOUT
CITATION

HYBRID
COMBINES PERFECTLY CITED SOURCES
WITH COPIED PASSAGES WITHOUT
CITATION

MASHUP

MIXES COPIED MATERIAL FROM

MULTIPLE SOURCES

404 ERROR
INCLUDES CITATIONS TO NONEXISTENT OR INACCURATE
INFORMATION ABOUT SOURCES

AGGREGATOR
INCLUDES PROPER CITATION TO
SOURCES BUT THE PAPER CONTAINS
ALMOST NO ORIGINAL WORK

RE-TWEET
INCLUDES PROPER CITATION, BUT
RELIES TOO CLOSELY ON THE TEXTS
ORIGINAL WORDING AND/OR
STRUCTURE

LOCAL CONSEQUENCES
Taken from the RLRS AUP
Violating Copyrights Copying, downloading or sharing any type of
copyrighted materials (including music or films) without the owners permission.
(See Board policy/procedure EGAD Copyright Compliance). The school unit
assumes no responsibility for copyright violations by students.
Copying Software Copying or downloading software without the express
authorization of the Technology Coordinator. Unauthorized copying of software is
illegal and may subject the copier to substantial civil and criminal penalties. The
school unit assumes no responsibility for illegal software copying by students.
Plagiarism Representing as ones own work any materials obtained on the
Internet (such as term papers, articles, music, etc). When Internet sources are
used in student work, the author, publisher and web site must be identified.

More Local Consequences

from the Student Code of Conduct
CHEATING/PLAGIARISM
Academic honesty is required at all times.
Dishonesty in any form, including cheating,
copying, giving answers, plagiarism (Taking
credit for the work of others), copyright
violations, false authorship, and theft or
pre-examination of tests, is forbidden.
Students caught cheating or plagiarizing
will receive a zero on the assignment and
be referred for disciplinary action.

PERSONAL/POLITICAL
CONSEQUENCES
The major consequence of plagiarism is that people who engage in it
hurt themselves. Good research and writing involves a ton of skills:
for starters, evaluating sources, taking careful notes, selecting
appropriate quotations, paraphrasing, and giving credit to others for
their ideas and words. Students who plagiarize may never learn these
skills, and life in college and beyond can be difficult without them.
Of course people who engage in plagiarism also hurt others: for one,
their classmates, and for another, the school or university they
attend. At the very least, turning in plagiarized work is unfair to
students who do their own work. It also jeopardizes the integrity of
the grading system. And whether detected or not, plagiarism violates
the implicit contract of the schoolroom: that students and teachers
are working together to help students learn knowledge and skills that
will enable them to fulfill their potential.

Plagiarism also undermines the whole notion of academic integrity on

which the academic world is grounded.

LEGAL CONSEQUENCES
Plagiarism can include prosecution under
copyright laws, which often include an
attempt at a monetary award based on
damages. The individual may also have to
make pay to make up for lost profits when
the owner of the work has lost income or is
unable to use their work any longer. In
some cases, plagiarism can include criminal
prosecution. The individual may face fines,
jail time and community service, in addition
to a civil case.

CITATIONS
Checkforplagiarism
Rangeleyschool.org
Plagiarism.org
eduscapes.com
Turnitin

Creative Commons License

Plagiarism by Lynn Richards

is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonComm
ercial 4.0 International License.