plagiarism

Writing

(noun)

The copying of another person's ideas, text, or other creative work, and presenting it as one's own, especially without permission.

Related Terms

Communications

(noun)

The act of plagiarizing: the copying of another person's ideas, text or other creative work, and presenting it as one's own, especially without permission.

Examples of plagiarism in the following topics:

  • Plagiarism

    • When most students think of plagiarism, they may think of outright copying another's works.
    • The "ideas" part of plagiarism can be especially tricky.
    • Inevitably, one person would be guilty of plagiarism.
    • Deliberate plagiarism should be avoided in academic and professional settings.
    • However, unintended plagiarism is more common that one might think.

  • Avoiding Plagiarism When Using the Internet

    • In the age of the Internet and social media, it can be both very easy and very tempting to plagiarize.
    • With the advent of complex, proprietary search engine algorithms has come another niche market: plagiarism detection.
    • And if you think you can fool plagiarism detection software, don't count out manual checking, either.
    • When in doubt, avoid the temptation to plagiarize despite the seemingly endless availability of content online.
    • As tempting as it might be to plagiarize with the vastness of available sources on the internet - don't do it.

  • The Importance of Citing Your Sources

    • To avoid plagiarism, you must provide an accurate citation every time you use information from an outside source.
    • If you use any of the above sources without citing them, you are committing plagiarism.
    • It is best to err on the side of caution to avoid plagiarism.
    • At the college level, plagiarism is an extremely serious offense.
    • Many publications and professors now require authors to run their papers through online plagiarism tools to ensure writing is original. 

  • Variations in Accuracy

  • Incorporating Your Sources Into Your Paper

    • Within the pages of your paper, it is important to properly reference and cite your sources to avoid plagiarism and to give credit for original ideas.

  • The Importance of Studying Ethics

    • Ethical speakers are ones who do not plagiarize their material or try to pass off words and ideas from others as their own.

  • Challenges of Resource-Based Learning

    • Although not confined to digital resources, student plagiarism is another challenge of resource-based learning.

  • Topic Research: Gathering Materials and Evidence

    • Plagiarism will only damage your reputation and the credibility and ethics of your speech in addition to potentially causing you to fail a class, lose your job, or worse.

  • Looking Beyond the Traditional References

    • However, conducting ethical research; that is, avoiding academic scandal and scientific misconduct such as fraud, fabrication of data and plagiarism help builds a foundation of trust among the scientific, academic and business communities using your findings.

  • Using Metacommentary to Clarify and Elaborate

    • If you use language or ideas from other sources without proper attribution, you are committing plagiarism.