Plagiarism
Actions that are considered plagiarism:
- Hiring someone to write your paper
- Buying, stealing, or borrowing a paper
- Copying from another source without citing (on purpose or by accident)
- Using the source too closely when paraphrasing
- Building on someone’s ideas without giving them credit
Are you confused about when to give credit to your source? This chart might help; if you’re still unsure, it is always better to cite the work. See your teacher or librarian for specific situations or if you have questions.
Need to Document:
- When you are using or referring to somebody else’s words or ideas from a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium
- When you use information gained through interviewing another person
- When you copy exact words or a unique phrase from any source
- When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, or pictures
- When you use ideas that others have given you in conversations or through email, including parents, tutors, etc.
No Need to Document:
- When you are writing your own experiences, your own observations, your own insights, your own thoughts, or your own conclusions about a subject
- When you are using “common knowledge” – folklore, common sense observations, shared information within your field of study or cultural group (e.g. Mars is known as the Red Planet.)
- When you are compiling generally accepted facts that can easily be found in a dictionary or encyclopedia (e.g. George Washington was born February 22, 1732.)
- When you are writing up your own experimental results
(from Purdue University Online Writing Lab)