Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of

another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."
Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is
considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud and ofenders are
subject to academic censure, up to and including expulsion. n the
academic world, plagiarism by students is a !ery serious ofense. n many
uni!ersities, academic degrees or awards may be re!oked as a penalty for
plagiarism.
"or cases in which a student commits plagiarism #e.g., submitting a copied
piece of writing as original work$, a student may be expelled. %tudents can
plagiari&e by copying and pasting information from other sources.
'll of the following are considered plagiarism(
)urning in someone else's work as your own
*opying words or ideas from someone else without gi!ing credit
"ailing to put a +uotation in +uotation marks
,i!ing incorrect information about the source of a +uotation
*hanging words but copying the sentence structure of a source without
gi!ing credit
*hanging only the words of an original source is -.) su/cient to
pre!ent plagiarism. 0ou must cite a source whene!er you borrow ideas as
well as words.
t does not matter how much was copied1 f e!en a small part of a work
is found to ha!e been copied, it is still plagiarism.
.n occasion, students accused of plagiarism ha!e claimed that their
plagiarism has occurred without their knowledge or intent. %ince ignorance
of con!ention is not a reasonable defense, it is best to become thoroughly
ac+uainted both with the !arious ways in which plagiarism is construed,
and with the con!entions of source attribution and proper documentation.
%ome students seem to belie!e that there are diferent degrees of
plagiarism, some not as a bad as others. -o distinctions are made between
any of the following acts.
Academic Punishments
2ost uni!ersities ha!e &ero tolerance for plagiarists. In fact, academic
standards of intellectual honesty are often more demanding than
governmental copyright laws. f you ha!e plagiari&ed a paper whose
copyright has run out, for example, you are no less likely to be disciplined
than if you had plagiari&ed copyrighted material.
' plagiari&ed paper almost always results in failure for the assignment,
frequently in failure for the course, and sometimes in expulsion. Plagiarism
in one assignment of one course irrespective of its quantum may validly
result in expulsion from the institution.
n some of the academic decisions e!en 3 consecuti!e words in one
assignment ha!e been considered plagiarism and ha!e resulted in
disciplining.
4egal Punishments as established in 5%(
2ost cases of plagiarism are considered misdemeanors, punishable by 6nes
of anywhere between 7899 and 739,999 :: and up to one year in jail.
"or citing you can use any standard format. personally prefer 'P'(
nterested students can !isit(
http(;;libweb.anglia.ac.uk;referencing;har!ard.htm accessed on <th =uly
>98?
http(;;www.waikato.ac.n&;library;study;guides;apa.shtml accessed on <th
=uly >98?
)ake special note of Web and Wikipedia referencing.