Undergraduate Catalog

Forms of Plagiarism

  1. Word-for-word copying of someone else’s work, in whole or in part, without acknowledgment, whether that work be a magazine article, a portion of a book, a newspaper piece, another student’s paper, or any other composition not your own, is considered a form of plagiarism. Any such use of another’s work must be acknowledged by:
    1. Enclosing all such copied portions in quotation grades.
    2. Giving the original source either in the body of the paper or in a note. As a general rule, one should make very little use of quoted matter in papers, project reports, and assignments.
  2. An unacknowledged paraphrasing of the structure and language of another person’s work is a form of plagiarism. Changing a few words of another’s composition, omitting a few sentences, or changing their order does not constitute original composition and therefore can be given no credit. If such borrowing or paraphrasing is ever necessary, the source must be indicated by appropriate reference.
  3. Writing a paper based solely on the ideas of another person is a form of plagiarism. Even though the language is not the same, if the thinking is clearly not one’s own, then the person has committed plagiarism. If, for example, in writing a paper a student reproduces the structure and progression of ideas in an essay one has read, or a speech one has heard, the student, in this case, is not engaging his/ her own mind and experience enough to claim credit for writing his/her own composition.

In summary, plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

  1. Using published work without referencing (the most common)
  2. Copying coursework
  3. Collaborating with any other person when the work is supposed to be individual
  4. Taking another person’s computer file/program
  5. Submitting another person’s work as one’s own
  6. The use of unacknowledged material published on the web
  7. Purchase of model assignments from whatever source
  8. Copying another student’s results