Plagiarism

Plagiarism is taking someone else’s ideas, words, or opinions and incorporating them in your paper without giving credit to that person or source. In essence, a person who plagiarizes is “stealing” from another person. Thus, when you are researching a topic and recording information, you must accurately document your sources whether you are quoting directly, paraphrasing or summarizing.

You do not need to document information if it is considered common knowledge. However, sometimes it may be difficult to determine if an idea or information is common knowledge. For example, it is common knowledge that Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected the thirty-second president of the United States. If you find that Franklin D. Roosevelt went to great lengths to conceal his paralysis from the American people, then a citation is required.

The following situations constitute plagiarism and should always be avoided:

Turning in another student’s paper as your own

Copying a part of another student’s paper and incorporating it into your paper

Quoting a source word for word without using quotation marks and a citation

Paraphrasing and/or summarizing a source’s ideas without giving a citation