What is Plagiarism?

At its core, plagiarism is intellectual theft. In academia, a plagiarist is comparable to a burglar, stealing others intellectual property and passing it off as their own for profit…in most cases a passing grade on an essay or research paper. Since college students are expected to conform to the rules of academic integrity, it is important to understand exactly what constitutes plagiarism and what the penalties are if a student is caught passing another’s work off as his or her own.

A Definition

According to Dictionary.com, plagiarism is: “the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.”

In other words, if a writer borrows any words or ideas from another writer without giving proper credit, he or she has committed plagiarism.

As the Writing Tutorial Services at Indiana State University points out, plagiarism can take many forms….each with increasing degrees of severity.

At the beginning of the spectrum are students who paraphrase or summarize an author’s ideas without citing the source. This may seem like a light offense, especially if the student is only taking a small or obvious idea, but it still constitutes a violation of academic integrity. Writers and scholars invest a great deal of time formulating their ideas, theories, and research, and so deserve credit for the work they have done.

Another more egregious form of plagiarism is copying a writer’s text word for word and using it in your paper without giving proper credit. It is perfectly fine to quote a writer and cite them in your footnotes or works cited page, so there really is no reason to engage in this activity. Yet many students still get caught doing just this sort of thing.

Worse still, however, is submitting another student’s paper as your own. The purpose of academic writing is to help students learn to develop, organize, and express their own ideas. Turning in another student’s work is one of the most severe violations of academic integrity.

The penultimate form of plagiarism, however, is purchasing an essay or research paper from a friend, classmate, or online source. If any explanation is needed to answer why this is wrong, you may want to pursue a career in crime rather than a earn a college degree.

Consequences

There are few greater crimes in academia worse than plagiarism. Therefore the consequences when caught can be devastating. Receiving an F or a “No Credit” for the assignment is only the tip of the ice burg. A first offense can lead to academic probation or, at some universities, expulsion from the school.

It should be noted that professors and scholars in academia, meaning your college instructors, are held to the same standards. Many scholars have seen their reputations ruined and careers destroyed getting caught for plagiarism.

For more on this issue, visit the following links:

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

http://www.wadsworth.com/english_d/special_features/plagiarism/definition.html

http://www.chem.uky.edu/Courses/common/plagiarism.html