What Is It?

 Plagiarism is taking someone else’s ideas, writing, or sequencing of material and using them as one’s own without acknowledging the source.  It is both illegal and morally wrong.

Why?

 Plagiarism is stealing ideas.  Just as our society has laws to prevent theft of material goods (stereos, bicycles, etc.), laws exist to prevent theft of ideas and writings.  Copyright laws exemplify this.
 Even beyond this, plagiarism is wrong because it causes distrust and deception.  The reader of plagiarized material is being deceived into believing the work is the student’s own.  Once this deception is brought to light, distrust exists because the instructor or reader questions the validity of any other written material submitted by the student.

How can You Tell If You Are Plagiarizing?

 As a student, you plagiarize any time you:
1. Copy or paraphrase someone else’s published work and submit it as all or part of your own assignment without giving credit.
2. Copy or paraphrase someone else’s unpublished written work, talk, or notes and submit it as all or part of your own assignment without giving credit.
3. Submit someone else’s paper as your own.

You help someone else plagiarize any time you:
1. Create an outline, draft, or finished paper for another student who then copies or submits it as his/her own.

What Happens Then?

 Refer to individual course syllabi for consequences that follow when a student has plagiarized material.  Usually the instructor would opt to:

1. Give the plagiarized paper a failing grade and /or
2. Give the student a failing grade for the course and/or
3. Recommend that a written note describing the incident be put into a student’s permanent file.
4. If the student persists in plagiarizing a second time, the instructor may request that the student be considered for expulsion.