Defining Plagiarism

Many people think of plagiarism as copying or borrowing another's work or ideas, but terms like "copying" and "borrowing" can disguise the seriousness of the offense.

• use material from a published or unpublished source, whether paraphrased or quoted directly, without clearly giving the original author credit.
• It also includes the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.

Plagiarism can also be described as:

• stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as one's own,
• using another's work without crediting the source,
• committing literary theft, and
• presenting as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.

• turning in someone else's work as your own
• copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
• failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
• giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
• changing words but copying the sentence structure from a source without giving credit to the original author
• copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether or not you give credit the original author
• purchasing a pre-written essay
• letting someone else write part or all of a paper for you
• submitting work done by a group, in which you participated, as something you wrote independently
• submitting writing you did for another class without first discussing it with the instructor
• misrepresenting what a source says (e.g. If the original author read your paraphrase and felt, "That's not what I said!")

Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources--that is by acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source. See our section on citation for more information on how to cite sources.

Using an image, video, or piece of music in a work you have produced without providing appropriate citation is plagiarism. The following activities are very common in today’s society, but they still count as plagiarism.

• Copying media (especially images) from other websites to paste into your own writing (including on websites).
• Making a video using footage from others’ videos or using others' musical compositions as part of the soundtrack.
• Performing another person’s musical compositions (i.e., recreating and reselling without permission).
• Composing a piece of music that borrows heavily from another composition.

In some cases, it can be challenging to determine whether or not copyright is being violated. For example:

• A photograph or scan of a copyrighted image (e.g. using a photograph of a book cover to represent that book on one’s website)
• Recording audio or video in which another person's musical composition or video is playing in the background.
• Re-creating a visual work in the same medium (e.g. shooting a photograph that uses the same composition and subject matter as someone else’s photograph)
• Re-creating a visual work in a different medium (e.g. making a painting that closely resembles another person’s photograph).
• Re-mixing or altering copyrighted images, video or audio, even if done so in an original way.

The safest approaches to take in regards to these situations are:

• Communicate with your professor to be sure you are on the same page as far as:
  • their expectations and
  • what you are working on and
• Clearly indicate where you have borrowed ideas from others.

Material Adapted from Plagiarism.org