Plagiarism – The “P” Word Defined
When a writer uses the ideas, thoughts, or words of someone else without giving credit, it is considered plagiarism. This doesn’t just apply to ideas identified with a specific author. An unsigned paragraph on a website is also a protected idea.
Plagiarism isn’t just copying another writer’s words and passing them off as your own. Any time you use someone else’s words, thoughts or ideas without giving credit or acknowledging your sources, you are plagiarizing. Sometimes this happens unintentionally when students don’t follow citation procedures. The result? An expensive mistake.
You are very likely to be plagiarizing if:
- You are summarizing or paraphrasing – rewording, that is – the ideas of a source as if they were really your own
- You copy exact language directly from a source without using quotation marks – even if you take care to give credit to the original source
- You repeat facts that aren’t considered common knowledge without citing the source of the information. For instance, the capital of South Dakota is considered common knowledge. Research results, statistical data, original literature, and new historical findings are not common knowledge – you have to consult other sources in order to present those ideas.