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How to avoid plagiarism?

Proper citation style.

Avoid plagiarism by always listing the source and formatting it correctly when you are note-taking. Take care of the proper formatting and citation style when using content from outside sources.

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Avoid borrowing and overusing large pieces of the content from outside sources, especially from Wikipedia. Write your own thoughts and use sources only to support your opinion (remember to cite it though!).

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Information about what plagiarism is, and how you can avoid it.

The University defines plagiarism as follows:

“Presenting work or ideas from another source as your own, with or without consent of the original author, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition, as is the use of material generated wholly or in part through use of artificial intelligence (save when use of AI for assessment has received prior authorisation e.g. as a reasonable adjustment for a student’s disability). Plagiarism can also include re-using your own work without citation. Under the regulations for examinations, intentional or reckless plagiarism is a disciplinary offence.”

The necessity to acknowledge others’ work or ideas applies not only to text, but also to other media, such as computer code, illustrations, graphs etc. It applies equally to published text and data drawn from books and journals, and to unpublished text and data, whether from lectures, theses or other students’ essays. You must also attribute text, data, or other resources downloaded from websites.

Please note that artificial intelligence (AI) can only be used within assessments where specific prior authorisation has been given, or when technology that uses AI has been agreed as reasonable adjustment for a student’s disability (such as voice recognition software for transcriptions, or spelling and grammar checkers).

The best way of avoiding plagiarism is to learn and employ the principles of good academic practice from the beginning of your university career. Avoiding plagiarism is not simply a matter of making sure your references are all correct, or changing enough words so the examiner will not notice your paraphrase; it is about deploying your academic skills to make your work as good as it can be.

Students will benefit from taking an  online course  which has been developed to provide a useful overview of the issues surrounding plagiarism and practical ways to avoid it.

Forms of plagiarism

Verbatim (word for word) quotation without clear acknowledgement Quotations must always be identified as such by the use of either quotation marks or indentation, and with full referencing of the sources cited. It must always be apparent to the reader which parts are your own independent work and where you have drawn on ideas and language from another source.

Cutting and pasting from the Internet without clear acknowledgement Information derived from the Internet must be adequately referenced and included in the bibliography. It is important to evaluate carefully all material found on the Internet, as it is less likely to have been through the same process of scholarly peer review as published sources.

Paraphrasing Paraphrasing the work of others by altering a few words and changing their order, or by closely following the structure of their argument, is plagiarism if you do not give due acknowledgement to the author whose work you are using.

A passing reference to the original author in your own text may not be enough; you must ensure that you do not create the misleading impression that the paraphrased wording or the sequence of ideas are entirely your own. It is better to write a brief summary of the author’s overall argument in your own words, indicating that you are doing so, than to paraphrase particular sections of his or her writing. This will ensure you have a genuine grasp of the argument and will avoid the difficulty of paraphrasing without plagiarising. You must also properly attribute all material you derive from lectures.

Collusion This can involve unauthorised collaboration between students, failure to attribute assistance received, or failure to follow precisely regulations on group work projects. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are entirely clear about the extent of collaboration permitted, and which parts of the work must be your own.

Inaccurate citation It is important to cite correctly, according to the conventions of your discipline. As well as listing your sources (i.e. in a bibliography), you must indicate, using a footnote or an in-text reference, where a quoted passage comes from. Additionally, you should not include anything in your references or bibliography that you have not actually consulted. If you cannot gain access to a primary source you must make it clear in your citation that your knowledge of the work has been derived from a secondary text (for example, Bradshaw, D. Title of Book, discussed in Wilson, E., Title of Book (London, 2004), p. 189).

Failure to acknowledge assistance You must clearly acknowledge all assistance which has contributed to the production of your work, such as advice from fellow students, laboratory technicians, and other external sources. This need not apply to the assistance provided by your tutor or supervisor, or to ordinary proofreading, but it is necessary to acknowledge other guidance which leads to substantive changes of content or approach.

Use of material written by professional agencies or other persons You should neither make use of professional agencies in the production of your work nor submit material which has been written for you even with the consent of the person who has written it. It is vital to your intellectual training and development that you should undertake the research process unaided. Under Statute XI on University Discipline, all members of the University are prohibited from providing material that could be submitted in an examination by students at this University or elsewhere.

Auto-plagiarism You must not submit work for assessment that you have already submitted (partially or in full), either for your current course or for another qualification of this, or any other, university, unless this is specifically provided for in the special regulations for your course. Where earlier work by you is citable, i.e. it has already been published, you must reference it clearly. Identical pieces of work submitted concurrently will also be considered to be auto-plagiarism.

Why does plagiarism matter?

Plagiarism is a breach of academic integrity. It is a principle of intellectual honesty that all members of the academic community should acknowledge their debt to the originators of the ideas, words, and data which form the basis for their own work. Passing off another’s work as your own is not only poor scholarship, but also means that you have failed to complete the learning process. Plagiarism is unethical and can have serious consequences for your future career; it also undermines the standards of your institution and of the degrees it issues.

Why should you avoid plagiarism?

There are many reasons to avoid plagiarism. You have come to university to learn to know and speak your own mind, not merely to reproduce the opinions of others - at least not without attribution. At first it may seem very difficult to develop your own views, and you will probably find yourself paraphrasing the writings of others as you attempt to understand and assimilate their arguments. However it is important that you learn to develop your own voice. You are not necessarily expected to become an original thinker, but you are expected to be an independent one - by learning to assess critically the work of others, weigh up differing arguments and draw your own conclusions. Students who plagiarise undermine the ethos of academic scholarship while avoiding an essential part of the learning process.

You should avoid plagiarism because you aspire to produce work of the highest quality. Once you have grasped the principles of source use and citation, you should find it relatively straightforward to steer clear of plagiarism. Moreover, you will reap the additional benefits of improvements to both the lucidity and quality of your writing. It is important to appreciate that mastery of the techniques of academic writing is not merely a practical skill, but one that lends both credibility and authority to your work, and demonstrates your commitment to the principle of intellectual honesty in scholarship.

What happens if you are thought to have plagiarised?

The University regards plagiarism in examinations as a serious matter. Cases will be investigated and penalties may range from deduction of marks to expulsion from the University, depending on the seriousness of the occurrence. Even if plagiarism is inadvertent, it can result in a penalty. The forms of plagiarism listed above are all potentially disciplinary offences in the context of formal assessment requirements.

The regulations regarding conduct in examinations apply equally to the ‘submission and assessment of a thesis, dissertation, essay, or other coursework not undertaken in formal examination conditions but which counts towards or constitutes the work for a degree or other academic award’. Additionally, this includes the transfer and confirmation of status exercises undertaken by graduate students. Cases of suspected plagiarism in assessed work are investigated under the disciplinary regulations concerning conduct in examinations. Intentional plagiarism in this context means that you understood that you were breaching the regulations and did so intending to gain advantage in the examination. Reckless, in this context, means that you understood or could be expected to have understood (even if you did not specifically consider it) that your work might breach the regulations, but you took no action to avoid doing so. Intentional or reckless plagiarism may incur severe penalties, including failure of your degree or expulsion from the university.

If plagiarism is suspected in a piece of work submitted for assessment in an examination, the matter will be referred to the Proctors. They will thoroughly investigate the claim and call the student concerned for interview. If at this point there is no evidence of a breach of the regulations, no further disciplinary action will be taken although there may still be an academic penalty. However, if it is concluded that a breach of the regulations may have occurred, the Proctors will refer the case to the Student Disciplinary Panel.

If you are suspected of plagiarism your College Secretary/Academic Administrator and subject tutor will support you through the process and arrange for a member of Congregation to accompany you to all hearings. They will be able to advise you what to expect during the investigation and how best to make your case. The Oxford SU Student Advice Service can also provide useful information and support. 

Does this mean that I shouldn’t use the work of other authors?

On the contrary, it is vital that you situate your writing within the intellectual debates of your discipline. Academic essays almost always involve the use and discussion of material written by others, and, with due acknowledgement and proper referencing, this is clearly distinguishable from plagiarism. The knowledge in your discipline has developed cumulatively as a result of years of research, innovation and debate. You need to give credit to the authors of the ideas and observations you cite. Not only does this accord recognition to their work, it also helps you to strengthen your argument by making clear the basis on which you make it. Moreover, good citation practice gives your reader the opportunity to follow up your references, or check the validity of your interpretation.

Does every statement in my essay have to be backed up with references?

You may feel that including the citation for every point you make will interrupt the flow of your essay and make it look very unoriginal. At least initially, this may sometimes be inevitable. However, by employing good citation practice from the start, you will learn to avoid errors such as close paraphrasing or inadequately referenced quotation. It is important to understand the reasons behind the need for transparency of source use.

All academic texts, even student essays, are multi-voiced, which means they are filled with references to other texts. Rather than attempting to synthesise these voices into one narrative account, you should make it clear whose interpretation or argument you are employing at any one time - whose ‘voice’ is speaking.

If you are substantially indebted to a particular argument in the formulation of your own, you should make this clear both in footnotes and in the body of your text according to the agreed conventions of the discipline, before going on to describe how your own views develop or diverge from this influence.

On the other hand, it is not necessary to give references for facts that are common knowledge in your discipline. If you are unsure as to whether something is considered to be common knowledge or not, it is safer to cite it anyway and seek clarification. You do need to document facts that are not generally known and ideas that are interpretations of facts. 

Does this only matter in exams?

Although plagiarism in weekly essays does not constitute a University disciplinary offence, it may well lead to College disciplinary measures. Persistent academic under-performance can even result in your being sent down from the University. Although tutorial essays traditionally do not require the full scholarly apparatus of footnotes and referencing, it is still necessary to acknowledge your sources and demonstrate the development of your argument, usually by an in-text reference. Many tutors will ask that you do employ a formal citation style early on, and you will find that this is good preparation for later project and dissertation work. In any case, your work will benefit considerably if you adopt good scholarly habits from the start, together with the techniques of critical thinking and writing described above.

As junior members of the academic community, students need to learn how to read academic literature and how to write in a style appropriate to their discipline. This does not mean that you must become masters of jargon and obfuscation; however the process is akin to learning a new language. It is necessary not only to learn new terminology, but the practical study skills and other techniques which will help you to learn effectively.

Developing these skills throughout your time at university will not only help you to produce better coursework, dissertations, projects and exam papers, but will lay the intellectual foundations for your future career. Even if you have no intention of becoming an academic, being able to analyse evidence, exercise critical judgement, and write clearly and persuasively are skills that will serve you for life, and which any employer will value.

Borrowing essays from other students to adapt and submit as your own is plagiarism, and will develop none of these necessary skills, holding back your academic development. Students who lend essays for this purpose are doing their peers no favours.

Unintentional plagiarism

Not all cases of plagiarism arise from a deliberate intention to cheat. Sometimes students may omit to take down citation details when taking notes, or they may be genuinely ignorant of referencing conventions. However, these excuses offer no sure protection against a charge of plagiarism. Even in cases where the plagiarism is found to have been neither intentional nor reckless, there may still be an academic penalty for poor practice.

It is your responsibility to find out the prevailing referencing conventions in your discipline, to take adequate notes, and to avoid close paraphrasing. If you are offered induction sessions on plagiarism and study skills, you should attend. Together with the advice contained in your subject handbook, these will help you learn how to avoid common errors. If you are undertaking a project or dissertation you should ensure that you have information on plagiarism and collusion. If ever in doubt about referencing, paraphrasing or plagiarism, you have only to ask your tutor.

Examples of plagiarism

There are some helpful examples of plagiarism-by-paraphrase and you will also find extensive advice on the referencing and library skills pages.

The following examples demonstrate some of the common pitfalls to avoid. These examples use the referencing system prescribed by the History Faculty but should be of use to students of all disciplines.

Source text

From a class perspective this put them [highwaymen] in an ambivalent position. In aspiring to that proud, if temporary, status of ‘Gentleman of the Road’, they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society. Yet their boldness of act and deed, in putting them outside the law as rebellious fugitives, revivified the ‘animal spirits’ of capitalism and became an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London, a serious obstacle to the formation of a tractable, obedient labour force. Therefore, it was not enough to hang them – the values they espoused or represented had to be challenged.

(Linebaugh, P., The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1991), p. 213. [You should give the reference in full the first time you use it in a footnote; thereafter it is acceptable to use an abbreviated version, e.g. Linebaugh, The London Hanged, p. 213.]

Plagiarised

• Although they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society, highwaymen became an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London, posing a serious threat to the formation of a biddable labour force. (This is a patchwork of phrases copied verbatim from the source, with just a few words changed here and there. There is no reference to the original author and no indication that these words are not the writer’s own.)
• Although they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society, highwaymen exercised a powerful attraction for the working classes. Some historians believe that this hindered the development of a submissive workforce. (This is a mixture of verbatim copying and acceptable paraphrase. Although only one phrase has been copied from the source, this would still count as plagiarism. The idea expressed in the first sentence has not been attributed at all, and the reference to ‘some historians’ in the second is insufficient. The writer should use clear referencing to acknowledge all ideas taken from other people’s work.)
• Although they did not question the inegalitarian hierarchy of their society, highwaymen ‘became an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London [and] a serious obstacle to the formation of a tractable, obedient labour force’.1 (This contains a mixture of attributed and unattributed quotation, which suggests to the reader that the first line is original to this writer. All quoted material must be enclosed in quotation marks and adequately referenced.)
• Highwaymen’s bold deeds ‘revivified the “animal spirits” of capitalism’ and made them an essential part of the oppositional culture of working-class London.1 Peter Linebaugh argues that they posed a major obstacle to the formation of an obedient labour force. (Although the most striking phrase has been placed within quotation marks and correctly referenced, and the original author is referred to in the text, there has been a great deal of unacknowledged borrowing. This should have been put into the writer’s own words instead.)
• By aspiring to the title of ‘Gentleman of the Road’, highwaymen did not challenge the unfair taxonomy of their society. Yet their daring exploits made them into outlaws and inspired the antagonistic culture of labouring London, forming a grave impediment to the development of a submissive workforce. Ultimately, hanging them was insufficient – the ideals they personified had to be discredited.1 (This may seem acceptable on a superficial level, but by imitating exactly the structure of the original passage and using synonyms for almost every word, the writer has paraphrased too closely. The reference to the original author does not make it clear how extensive the borrowing has been. Instead, the writer should try to express the argument in his or her own words, rather than relying on a ‘translation’ of the original.)

Non-plagiarised

• Peter Linebaugh argues that although highwaymen posed no overt challenge to social orthodoxy – they aspired to be known as ‘Gentlemen of the Road’ – they were often seen as anti-hero role models by the unruly working classes. He concludes that they were executed not only for their criminal acts, but in order to stamp out the threat of insubordinacy.1 (This paraphrase of the passage is acceptable as the wording and structure demonstrate the reader’s interpretation of the passage and do not follow the original too closely. The source of the ideas under discussion has been properly attributed in both textual and footnote references.)
• Peter Linebaugh argues that highwaymen represented a powerful challenge to the mores of capitalist society and inspired the rebelliousness of London’s working class.1 (This is a brief summary of the argument with appropriate attribution.) 1 Linebaugh, P., The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1991), p. 213.

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5 free plagiarism checkers for university students

Free plagiarism checkers are nifty tools for university students in the digital age. Why? Simply because passing off someone else’s work as your own is a serious offence in the academic community.

This is why students are encouraged to always attribute quotes, paraphrase borrowed ideas, and steer clear from copying entire sentences or paragraphs. Equally important is corroborating sources by cross-checking facts on reliable websites. Finally, running your work through a free plagiarism checker will determine if it is an original piece worthy of a good grade.

No better feeling than when the plagiarism result comes back like this 😌 pic.twitter.com/khx6cdV4zQ — sign & wonder 💡 (@mikeOI3) August 15, 2021

Why use a free plagiarism checker?

The rising prominence of technology in higher education has its pitfalls — one of them being plagiarism. In response, universities are forced to crack down on students who submit “stolen” work. Students caught plagiarising face real consequences including a failed grade or academic probation. It’s no wonder, then, that institutions like Oxford University have even introduced special courses to curb this academic crime.

Such courses teach students what plagiarism is, how to accurately cite other work in their essays, academic writing skills, and even paraphrasing. Yet sometimes, even if you don’t mean to copy, the final text ends up too similar to your references. That’s when a free plagiarism checker comes in handy.

Turnitin may be the popular plagiarism prevention software, but there are other free services that can help you check your work before submission. Here’s a look at five free plagiarism checkers for university students. Use them on all your assignments to maintain peace of mind — and good grades, of course.

Plagiarism checkers help students and teachers maintain a high standard of quality in university classes. Source: Ina Fassbender/AFP

It is typically used for English learning and writing, but did you know Grammarly also has a plagiarism checker? Simply copy a passage or upload a file to check your work against ProQuest databases and 16 billion web pages. You will also gain useful insights on punctuation, vocabulary, and sentence structure to improve your work.

Tap into this free plagiarism checker’s DeepSearch technology for contextual analysis on any subject matter. Quetext promises fast, accurate scanning while protecting the privacy of its users. Feedback includes colour-grading text based on the level of plagiarism and a comprehensive plagiarism score.

If you’re familiar with Turnitin, you can place your confidence in EasyBib — which claims to use similar technology. Beyond checking for plagiarism, this software will also provide suggestions to improve your grammar and style. Bonus: You may submit your paper for a 24-hour in-depth check, which involves detailed feedback from writing experts.

Unicheck compares your work against over 91 billion web sources and open access databases, so you can be sure it catches everything. Students will find the full-scale interactive report helpful; you can check similar sources and adjust citations and references. With its in-depth explanations and promise of 99% uptime, it’s no wonder this software is used by students and teachers alike. Even universities use it to check assessments.

Duplichecker

Another plagiarism checker that uses DeepSearch technology is Duplichecker, which offers a basic free version and a multifunctional pro version. Your results will show percentages of plagiarism, unique, and related-meaning sentences. To begin, copy texts of under 1,000 words or upload your document.

Scribber’s checker, developed in partnership with Turnitin, performs particularly well with sources that are relevant to students, such as journal articles and dissertations. It thrives in detecting plagiarism in heavily edited texts.

How do we detect plagiarism with the rise of ChatGPT?

ChatGPT and plagiarism — these two words are coming together more often recently.

The chatbot powered by artificial intelligence (AI) sounded alarm bells in education circles when it threatened to upend the authenticity of student essays.

While a plagiarism checker might not definitively determine whether a language model was used to generate a piece of text, it can help you identify instances of copying or paraphrasing from other sources.

In this, it can still be hard to detect plagiarism by an AI chatbot.

That’s because AI writing tools use natural language and grammar to craft “unique and almost individualised content,” even if the content is drawn from a database, according to Aaron Leong from  Digital Trends .

Still, it didn’t stop Turnitin, a popular free plagiarism checker used by educators and students worldwide from releasing new features to detect the use of AI writing tools.

According to the provider, these  features  can be found in Turnitin Feedback Studio (TFS), TFS with Originality, Turnitin Originality, Turnitin Similarity, Simcheck, Originality Check, and Originality Check+.

Currently, the new features on this platform have reportedly been able to detect the presence of AI writing with  98% confidence  and a less than one percent false-positive rate in Turnitin’s controlled lab environment.

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What this handout is about

This handout explains what plagiarism is and outlines steps students can follow to avoid plagiarizing.

What is plagiarism?

At UNC, plagiarism is defined as “deliberate or reckless representation of another’s words, thoughts, or ideas as one’s own without attribution in connection with submission of academic work, whether graded or otherwise” ( Instrument of Student Judicial Governance 5). Because it is considered a form of cheating, the Office of the Dean of Students can punish students who plagiarize with course failure and suspension. Full information can be found on the UNC Honor System page.

Often when students plagiarize, they do not intentionally steal another person’s work. Instead, they plagiarize by accident because they do not have a complete understanding of what constitutes plagiarism. This is what we mean by “reckless.” If you fail to give proper credit to someone else’s ideas because you didn’t know you were supposed to or because you didn’t know how to do so, you face the same consequences as if you intentionally stole someone else’s work. Therefore, it is your responsibility to understand when and how to acknowledge someone else’s contribution.

Why are my instructors so concerned about plagiarism?

In order to understand plagiarism, it helps to understand the process of sharing and creating ideas in the university. All knowledge is built from previous knowledge. As we read, study, perform experiments, and gather perspectives, we are drawing on other people’s ideas. Building on their ideas and experiences, we create our own. When you put your ideas on paper, your instructors want to distinguish between the building block ideas borrowed from other people and your own newly reasoned perspectives or conclusions. You make these distinctions in a written paper by citing the sources for your building block ideas. Providing appropriate citations will also help readers who are interested in your topic find additional, related material to read—in this way, they will be able to build on the work you have done to find sources.

Think of it this way: in the vast majority of assignments you’ll get in college, your instructors will ask you to read something (think of this material as the building blocks) and then write a paper in which you analyze one or more aspects of what you have read (think of this as the new structure you build). Essentially, your instructors are asking you to do three things:

• Show that you have a clear understanding of the material you’ve read.
• Refer to your sources to support the ideas you have developed.
• Distinguish your analysis of what you’ve read from the authors’ analyses.

When you cite a source, you are using an expert’s ideas as proof or evidence of a new idea that you are trying to communicate to the reader.

What about “common knowledge”?

In every professional field, experts consider some ideas “common knowledge,” but remember that you’re not a professional (yet). In fact, you’re just learning about those concepts in the course you’re taking, so the material you are reading may not yet be “common knowledge” to you. In order to decide if the material you want to use in your paper constitutes “common knowledge,” you may find it helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

• Did I know this information before I took this course?
• Did this information/idea come from my own brain?

If you answer “no” to either or both of these questions, then the information is not “common knowledge” to you. In these cases, you need to cite your source(s) and indicate where you first learned this bit of what may be “common knowledge” in the field.

What about paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing means taking another person’s ideas and putting those ideas in your own words. Paraphrasing does NOT mean changing a word or two in someone else’s sentence, changing the sentence structure while maintaining the original words, or changing a few words to synonyms. If you are tempted to rearrange a sentence in any of these ways, you are writing too close to the original. That’s plagiarizing, not paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing is a fine way to use another person’s ideas to support your argument as long as you attribute the material to the author and cite the source in the text at the end of the sentence. In order to make sure you are paraphrasing in the first place, take notes from your reading with the book closed. Doing so will make it easier to put the ideas in your own words. When you are unsure if you are writing too close to the original, check with your instructor BEFORE you turn in the paper for a grade. So, just to be clear—do you need to cite when you paraphrase? Yes, you do!

How can I avoid plagiarizing?

Now that you understand what plagiarism is, you’re ready to employ the following steps to avoid plagiarizing in your written work.

Step 1: Accentuate the positive. Understand the value of citations.

Do you feel that you use too many citations? Too few? Many students worry that if they use too many citations their instructors will think that they’re relying too heavily on the source material and therefore not thinking for themselves. In fact, however, using citations allows you to demonstrate clearly how well you understand the course material while also making clear distinctions between what the authors have to say and your analysis of their ideas.

Thus, rather than making your paper look less intellectually sophisticated, using citations allows you to show off your understanding of the material and the assignment. And instead of showing what you don’t know, citing your sources provides evidence of what you do know and of the authority behind your knowledge. Just make sure that your paper has a point, main idea, or thesis that is your own and that you organize the source material around that point.

Are you worried that you have too few citations? Double-check your assignment to see if you have been given any indication of the number or kind of source materials expected. Then share your writing with another reader. Do you have enough evidence or proof to support the ideas you put forward? Why should the reader believe the points you have made? Would adding another, expert voice strengthen your argument? Who else agrees or disagrees with the ideas you have written? Have you paraphrased ideas that you have read or heard? If so, you need to cite them. Have you referred to or relied on course material to develop your ideas? If so, you need to cite it as well.

Step 2: How can I keep track of all this information? Improve your note-taking skills.

Once you’ve reconsidered your position on using citations, you need to rethink your note-taking practices. Taking careful notes is simply the best way to avoid plagiarism. And improving your note-taking skills will also allow you to refine your critical thinking skills. Here’s how the process works:

(1) Start by carefully noting all the bibliographic information you’ll need for your works cited page. (See #3 for more details on how to determine exactly what information you’ll need for different kinds of sources.) If you’re photocopying an article or section out of a book or journal, why not photocopy the front pages of the source as well? That way you’ll have the bibliographic information if you need it later. If you forget to gather the information for a book, you can usually get it from the library’s online card catalogue. Simply pull up the entry for the book you used to see the bibliographic information on that source. If you’re working on an article from a journal, you can return to the database from which you got the original citation to find the bibliographic information.

(2) Next, try thinking about your notes as a kind of transitional space between what you’ve read and what you’re preparing to write. Imagine yourself having a conversation with the author of the story/novel/play/poem/article/book you’re reading, in which you repeatedly ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the author trying to explain?
• Why do they think these points are important?
• How have they decided to construct the argument?
• How does the structure of the argument affect the reader’s response to the author’s ideas?
• How effective is the author’s argument?

Adopting this “conversational” approach to note-taking will improve your analysis of the material by leading you to notice not just what the author says, but also how and why the author communicates their ideas. This strategy will also help you avoid the very common temptation of thinking that the author’s way of explaining something is much better than anything you could write. If you are tempted to borrow the author’s language, write your notes with the book closed to ensure that you are putting the ideas into your own words. If you’ve already taken a step away from the author’s words in your notes, you’ll find it easier to use your own words in the paper you write.

(3) Finally, be careful to use quotation marks to distinguish the exact words used by the author from your own words so that when you return to your notes later in the writing process, you won’t have to guess which ideas are yours and which ones came directly from the text. You’ll have to experiment with different note-taking techniques until you find the one that works best for you, but here’s one example of how your notes might look:

James Leoni, trans. Ten Books on Architecture by Leone Battista Alberti. London: Alec Tirani, Ltd., 1955.

BOOK I, CHAPTER X: “Of the Columns and Walls, and Some Observations Relating to the Columns”

(p. 14) Alberti begins by talking about walls, and then says a row of columns is simply “a Wall open and discontinued in several Places;” he says the column supports the roof, and that columns are the most beautiful of the architectural elements; here, he’ll address what columns have in common, and later he’ll discuss their differences.

(p. 14) all columns rest on a plinth (or dye), which supports a base, which supports the column, which is topped by a capital; columns are usually widest at the base, and taper toward the top; Alberti says the column was invented simply to hold up the roof, but men sought to make their buildings “immortal and eternal,” so they embellished columns with architraves, entablatures, etc.

Notice that you can adapt this note-taking strategy to any format—whether you prefer to take notes by hand, on note cards, on your computer, or some other way. For more information on developing an effective note-taking technique, you can consult any grammar handbook. Here are a few particularly helpful ones:

Leonard J. Rosen and Laurence Behren. The Allyn & Bacon Handbook. 4th ed., Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2000.

MLA Handbook. 8th ed., New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2016.

Kate L. Turabian. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 7th ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Step 3: So many details, so little time! Locate the appropriate style manual.

Don’t worry—no one can remember all the different citation conventions used in all the different university disciplines! Citing your sources appropriately is a matter of:

• determining which style your instructor wants you to use,
• finding the appropriate style manual, and
• copying the “formula” it gives for each type of source you use.

First, carefully read the assignment to determine what citation style your instructor wants you to use (APA, MLA, Chicago, and CSE are the most common). If they don’t specify a citation style in the assignment, check your syllabus, coursepack, and/or Sakai site. If you can’t find the citation style in any of those places, ask your instructor what style they prefer.

Second, academic citation styles follow specific formats, so making an educated guess about how to structure your citations and works cited page is usually not a good idea. Instead, find the specified style manual in the reference section of the library, on the reference shelf in the Writing Center, or online.

Finally, style manuals provide easy-to-follow formulas for your citations. For example, the MLA handbook provides the following format for citing a book by a single author:

Author’s name. Title of the book. Publication information.

You can use this formula for your own citation by simply plugging in the information called for, following the format of the formula itself. Here’s an example of how that might look:

Berlage, Gai Ingham. Women in Baseball: The Forgotten History. Praeger, 1994.

If you’d like more information on citation styles, see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

Step 4: Seek instruction.

Tell your professors that you’d like to make sure you’re not plagiarizing. Ask them if they’d be willing to meet with you to review your draft before you turn it in for a grade. Ask if they’d be willing to help you identify any passages that need better citation. Bring your draft, your notes, and your sources so your professor can see the original. Be proactive in this process! Point out areas you’re not sure about. Don’t wait silently, thinking that a passage must be okay if the professor doesn’t point it out. Have this conversation well before the draft is due, and explain to your professor that you are trying not to be reckless.

Also remember that you can make an appointment with a Writing Center coach. Bring your draft and source materials, and show your coach the passages you’re concerned about. Your coach can teach you strategies for paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting effectively, and for attributing properly.

How can I tell whether I’ve plagiarized?

If you’ve followed the above guidelines but still aren’t sure whether you’ve plagiarized, you can double-check your work using the checklist below.

You need to cite your source, even if:

• you put all direct quotes in quotation marks.
• you changed the words used by the author into synonyms.
• you completely paraphrased the ideas to which you referred.
• your sentence is mostly made up of your own thoughts, but contains a reference to the author’s ideas.
• you mention the author’s name in the sentence.

**The moral of this handout: When in doubt, give a citation.**

Where can I look for more information on UNC’s policies regarding plagiarism?

If you’re interested in exactly how plagiarism is defined for the UNC community, see the Honor System webpage . Because it is considered a form of academic cheating and constitutes a serious violation of the University’s Honor Code, the usual punishment for a student found guilty of plagiarizing is suspension for one semester and an “F” in the course.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Alberti, Leone Battista. 1955. Ten Books on Architecture . London: Alec Tiranti.

Modern Language Association. 2016. MLA Handbook , 8th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America.

Rosen, Leonard J., and Laurence Behrens. 2003. The Allyn & Bacon Handbook , 5th ed. New York: Longman.

Turabian, Kate. 2018. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, Dissertations , 9th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Quick Tips For Avoiding Plagiarism

• Read carefully :  Read through your assignment instructions carefully.  Understand your sources by reading them closely.
• Take good notes :  Print out sources and write notes on the pages or take notes digitally.  Keep track of where your information is coming from.
• Avoid procrastination :  It can be tempting to take shortcuts when you run out of time to do your assignment.
• Quoting vs paraphrasing vs summarizing :  See the advice on this page and know when it is appropriate to quote, paraphrase, or summarize your source.

What To Do When You're Struggling To Write

What Is Plagiarism?

The Council of Writing Program Administrators defines plagiarism in an instructional context as "occur[ing] when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source.  This definition applies to texts published in print or on-line, to manuscripts, and to the work of other student writers."  Plagiarism and citing sources incorrectly are two different situations.  If writers make every effort to cite sources accurately but do not cite adequately or do not use the correct citation style, they are not plagiarizing.  Plagiarism occurs when a writer intentionally takes credit for someone else's ideas or words.

Types of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is perhaps the most common form of academic dishonesty.  However, there are many types of plagiarism, and most plagiarism is not intentional. Frequently, it is the result of taking insufficient notes when reading your sources. Below are several types of plagiarism of which you should be aware.

Accidental Plagiarism

• Forgetting to place quotation marks around another's words
• Omitting a source citation for another's idea because you are unaware
• Carelessly copying a source which you mean to paraphrase

Intentional Plagiarism

• Copying a phrase, sentence, or passage from a source and passing it off as your own
• Summarizing or paraphrasing someone else's ideas without acknowledging your debt
• Handing in a paper you bought or had a friend write or copied from another student

The library has created a graphic representation to show you the range of intentional and unintentional plagiarism activities .

Avoiding Plagiarism

There are many online tools to help you with the research and writing processes.  Learning a few new tips can save you time, lead to better research notes, and help avoid plagiarism.

• Sweetland Writing Guide : How Do I Effectively Integrate Textual Evidence? Advice on how to quote, paraphrase, and summarize other people's writing into your own.
• Sweetland Writing Guide : How Do I Incorporate Quotes? This guide specifically focuses on integrating quotes into your work and illustrates why it is important to do so.
• Beyond Plagiarism : Best Practices for the Responsible Use of Sources Collaboratively created by the University of Michigan's Sweetland Writing Center and Library, this online tutorial will teach you how to use resources effectively and responsibly.
• Plagiarism.Org A wealth of resources created to not only help you understand plagiarism but also to provide exercises and resources to avoid plagiarism.
• Library Guide For International Students : What Is Plagiarism From a Research Guide created by the library, this resource focuses on identifying resources and strategies that center on Western European and North American plagiarism standards.
• Ask a Librarian Services Consider meeting in person with a librarian or using one of the many virtual ways of contacting a librarian to help you identify plagiarism and learn how to incorporate evidence without plagiarizing.

In addition, consider asking your instructor or professor how you might avoid plagiarism in your work.  It can be difficult to avoid plagiarism without practice and your professor/instructor may have some specific advice to help you in this area.

Plagiarism Tutorials

These instructional tools provide more tips and practice on both recognizing and avoiding plagiarism.  Use these resources to identify what you have already mastered and what skills or concepts you might need to strengthen.

• Academic Integrity Quiz An academic integrity tutorial designed to introduce you to UM's LSA community standards of academic integrity.
• How to Recognize Plagiarism: Tutorials and Tests Indiana University's tutorial on identifying plagiarism

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This guide on plagiarism, what is plagiarism, types of plagiarism, consequences of plagiarism, can you plagiarize yourself, plagiarism resources, education liaison librarian.

Plagiarism is a complicated and common problem that can have serious consequences.  It is important to know what plagiarism is so you can avoid plagiarizing, whether the plagiarism is intentional or accidental.  This guide is intended to help you recognize what plagiarism is, understand the consequences of being caught plagiarizing and understand how to avoid plagiarizing.  Technology has made it easier than ever for people to plagiarize, but it has also made it easier than ever to catch people who have plagiarized.

In its Academic Honesty Policy, The University of Central Missouri defines plagiarism as:

"Plagiarism - Plagiarism is defined as the borrowing of ideas, opinions, examples, key words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or even structure from another person's work, including work written or produced by others without proper acknowledgment. "Work" is defined as theses, drafts, completed essays, examinations, quizzes, projects, assignments, presentations, or any other form of communication, be it on the Internet or in any other medium or media. "Proper acknowledgment" is defined as the use of quotation marks or indenting plus documentation for directly quoted work and specific, clearly articulated citation for paraphrased or otherwise borrowed material." 

Most students know that plagiarism (passing off another person’s work as your own) is a form of academic dishonesty and is strictly prohibited.  It is possible, however, for an individual to be unintentionally guilty of plagiarizing-- by using another individual’s work without attributing the work to the original author or by changing another’s work only minimally.  It is important to understand what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it. 

("Plagiarism." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 20 July 2017.)

According to turnitin.com, these are the ten most recognized types of plagiarism.

For a closer look at each of these types of plagiarism, visit The Plagiarism Spectrum, a report prepared by turnitin.com.  The report contains statistics on the frequency of each of the types of plagiarism, as well as examples of each.

(Turnitin : Results : Plagiarism Spectrum. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 July 2017)

• The Plagiarism Spectrum

At the University of Central Missouri, plagiarism is considered a violation of the Academic Honesty Policy.   This policy clearly defines what plagiarism is and describes the process that will be used for a student who has been accused of plagiarizing. Most if not all universities and colleges have a similar policy in place.

While plagiarism is a problem often associated with school or college, these are not the only places where one can face the consequences of plagiarism.  iThenticate, a leading producer of anti-plagiarism software, reports on six different consequences of plagiarism:

The consequences of plagiarism can be personal, professional, ethical, and legal. With plagiarism detection software so readily available and in use, plagiarists are being caught at an alarming rate. Once accused of plagiarism, a person will most likely always be regarded with suspicion. Ignorance is not an excuse. Plagiarists include academics, professionals, students, journalists, authors, and others.

Consequences of plagiarism include:

Destroyed Student Reputation

Plagiarism allegations can cause a student to be suspended or expelled. Their academic record can reflect the ethics offense, possibly causing the student to be barred from entering college from high school or another college. Schools, colleges, and universities take plagiarism very seriously. Most educational institutions have academic integrity committees who police students. Many schools suspend students for their first violation. Students are usually expelled for further offences.

Destroyed Professional Reputation

A professional business person, politician, or public figure may find that the damage from plagiarism follows them for their entire career. Not only will they likely be fired or asked to step down from their present position, but they will surely find it difficult to obtain another respectable job. Depending on the offense and the plagiarist’s public stature, his or her name may become ruined, making any kind of meaningful career impossible.

Destroyed Academic Reputation

The consequences of plagiarism have been widely reported in the world of academia. Once scarred with plagiarism allegations, an academic’s career can be ruined. Publishing is an integral part of a prestigious academic career. To lose the ability to publish most likely means the end of an academic position and a destroyed reputation.

Legal Repercussions

The legal repercussions of plagiarism can be quite serious. Copyright laws are absolute. One cannot use another person’s material without citation and reference. An author has the right to sue a plagiarist. Some plagiarism may also be deemed a criminal offense, possibly leading to a prison sentence. Those who write for a living, such as journalists or authors, are particularly susceptible to plagiarism issues. Those who write frequently must be ever-vigilant not to err. Writers are well-aware of copyright laws and ways to avoid plagiarism. As a professional writer, to plagiarize is a serious ethical and perhaps legal issue.

Monetary Repercussions

Many recent news reports and articles have exposed plagiarism by journalists, authors, public figures, and researchers. In the case where an author sues a plagiarist, the author may be granted monetary restitution. In the case where a journalist works for a magazine, newspaper or other publisher, or even if a student is found plagiarizing in school, the offending plagiarist could have to pay monetary penalties.

Plagiarized Research

Plagiarized research is an especially egregious form of plagiarism. If the research is medical in nature, the consequences of plagiarism could mean the loss of peoples’ lives. This kind of plagiarism is particularly heinous.

The consequences of plagiarism are far-reaching and no one is immune. Neither ignorance nor stature excuses a person from the ethical and legal ramifications of committing plagiarism. Before attempting any writing project, learn about plagiarism. Find out what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it. The rules are easy to understand and follow. If there is any question about missing attribution, try using an online plagiarism checker or plagiarism detection software to check your writing for plagiarism before turning it in. Laziness or dishonesty can lead to a ruined reputation, the loss of a career, and legal problems.

("6 Consequences of Plagiarism." Plagiarism Detection Software. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 July 2017.)

• University of Central Missouri Academic Honesty Policy

Surprisingly, the answer is YES.

When a paper you submit to satisfy a class assignment was originally written for a different assignment in a different class, that is considered self-plagiarism and is a violation of the Academic Honesty Policy.

"The Ethics of Self Plagiarism" an article from iThenticate which explains self-plagiarism and the issues that surround it.

• The Ethics of Self Plagiarism
• Plagiarism and How to Avoid It
• Purdue OWL - Avoiding Plagiarism
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• What is plagiarism and how to avoid it? Database Article found in Academic Search Complete
• The 'Write' Stuff: Simple Techniques Designed to Teach Students How to Avoid Plagiarism Database article found in Academic Search Complete
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According to USC's current Student Handbook [p. 9] plagiarism is:

• The submission of material authored by another but represented as the student’s own work, whether that material is paraphrased or copied in verbatim or near-verbatim form.
• Re-using any portion of one’s own work (essay, term paper, project, or other assignment) previously submitted without citation of such and without permission of the instructor(s) involved.
• Improper acknowledgment of sources in essays or papers, including drafts. Also, all students involved in collaborative work (as permitted by the instructor) are expected to proofread the work and are responsible for all particulars of the final draft.
• Acquisition of academic work, such as term papers, solutions, or other assignments, from any source and the subsequent presentation of those materials as the student’s own work, or providing academic work, such as term papers, solutions, or assignments submitted by another student as their own work.

Avoiding Allegations of Plagiarism

An allegation of plagiarism is intent-neutral . In other words, the reader cannot discern whether the absence of a citation was done deliberately or you simply forgot to add a citation. Therefore, it is important to proofread your paper before you submit it to ensure that all sources used during your research are cited and that every in-text citation is included and refers to the correct, fully cited source in your list of references. This is why it is important to keep track of everything you have used while researching and writing your paper, so you can easily correct any omissions.

If you have any doubts about whether to cite a particular argument or statement , protect yourself from an allegation of plagiarism by citing the proper source or sources that support your statements. This will help the reader determine the validity of your work. Note that, most importantly, a citation error not only may raise concerns about the academic integrity of your paper, but it tells the reader that you did not conduct an effective or thorough review of the literature. A missing citation also inhibits the reader's ability to review the source in order to obtain further information about what is being discussed in your paper and the arguments that you have presented.

Academic Integrity. The Writing Center. University of Kansas; Avoiding Plagiarism. Academic Skills Program, University of Canberra; How and When to Cite Other People's Work. Psychology Writing Center, University of Washington; Proctor, Margaret. "How Not to Plagiarize." University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Plagiarism. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Plagiarism. The Writing Center. Department of English, George Mason University. Avoiding Plagiarism. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University.

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Academic Integrity at MIT

A handbook for students, search form, what is plagiarism.

During your academic career at MIT, you will write original papers and give oral presentations that require research in libraries and laboratories and accessing electronic resources. It is important to understand that standards for reusing other people’s creative output vary from discipline to discipline and culture to culture. For example, in the United States our copyright law does not protect ideas or facts, but does protect the particular, original expression of an idea in words or images when they are expressed in a tangible form.

In some cultures, the concept of “owning” words that are arranged in a particular sequence may seem strange. Students from these cultures may have been encouraged to repeat the words of others and incorporate them into their own writing without quoting or otherwise indicating that they came from another source. Other cultures accept the practice of copying phrases or sentences into a paper without using quotation marks as long as the writer shows where they came from. These practices are not acceptable in North American academic culture.

Creative expression of ideas through words, images, and other media is the lifeblood of this academic culture. For this reason, we expect that our original expressions should not be used by others without attribution and acknowledgment.

Plagiarism occurs when you use another’s words, ideas, assertions, data, or figures and do not acknowledge that you have done so.

If you use the words, ideas, or phrasing of another person or from published material, you must

• Use quotation marks around the words and cite the source, or
• Paraphrase or summarize acceptably and cite the source.

If you use charts, graphs, data sets, or numerical information obtained from another person or from published material, you must also cite the source.

You must always acknowledge your sources by citing them . In this way, you have the right to use another’s creative output by giving that person credit for the work s/he has done.

Plagiarism Checker for Students

Quetext's plagiarism checker is a must-have free tool for every student. Identify plagiarism before it's too late, get resources to improve your writing, and add citations quickly, all for free. You do the writing, and we'll help with the rest.

Check a Paper for Plagiarism

Why use quetext over other plagiarism detection tools, avoid “accidental plagiarism”.

Our ColorGrade™ feedback feature highlights exact matches vs. near-exact or “fuzzy” matches with corresponding colors. From there, you can resolve plagiarism issues by deleting or altering the at-risk copy.

Cite sources directly in your paper

For the copy you want to keep, you can use our handy “Cite Source” feature to generate citations in MLA, APA, and Chicago formats and insert the citations directly into your document.

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Our plagiarism detection tool uses DeepSearch™ Technology to identify any content throughout your document that might be plagiarized. We identify plagiarized content by running the text through three steps:

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How you can avoid plagiarizing

Know the different types of plagiarism

There are several types of plagiarism, and it’s essential to understand the differences to avoid making these mistakes and prevent plagiarism in the classroom.

• Direct plagiarism: Using someone else’s exact words and using them as your own with no credit to the source. Eliminating portions of the text still qualifies as direct plagiarism.
• Patchwork plagiarism: Creating new text by combining exact phrases or sentences from multiple sources without acknowledging the original authors or sources.
• Self-plagiarism: Attempting to reuse or recycle your previous work and claiming it as a new piece of work without mentioning the source of original publication.
• Source-based plagiarism: Producing false sources within your writing or omitting one or more references from citations.

Cite your sources

Students often think of citations as a simple means of acknowledging another author's work. While this is their main purpose, there are other benefits as well.

Source citations also show readers where to go to learn more. By providing context around the citation in student papers, such as the source medium and when it was published, readers can locate the information more easily. Giving too little source information or improperly formatting it can result in unintentional plagiarism. These mistakes also make it difficult for readers to locate the original source and verify information.

Quetext's citation generator makes it easy for students to accurately cite their sources without slowing down their writing process. Once a user inputs the text, the software identifies the passages that require a citation and subsequently generates it in the style required — APA, MLA, or Chicago.

Always use a plagiarism checker

The best way to avoid severe plagiarism consequences is to use a plagiarism checker. Often, plagiarism is unintentional and results from poor paraphrasing of material found online. Using a plagiarism checker, the student can avoid accusations of any kind of plagiarism and benefit from a close review of the original material.

Quetext's plagiarism checker provides a speedy, easy process for students to receive accurate results, identifying areas of concern and providing on-page solutions.

Plagiarism Checker for Students FAQ

What are the consequences if a student is caught plagiarizing.

The consequences of plagiarism vary according to the student’s academic institution and grade level. For example, a middle school student who plagiarizes within an essay may receive a stern warning and additional instruction related to the process of citing sources or summarizing one’s thoughts.

However, students in higher education institutions guilty of plagiarism in academic papers face much steeper repercussions, including, but not limited, to failing grades and disciplinary or legal action. Factors such as the assignment itself, the instructor, and whether or not it is your first offense impact the outcome.

Depending on the severity of the situation, plagiarism can also impact a student’s reputation or future career opportunities.

How does a plagiarism checker help students?

A plagiarism checker helps students be proactive in finding instances of plagiarism before an assignment is completed and turned in with no way to correct the errors.

In addition, by identifying the potential conflicts early, students can conduct further research to find alternative sources to understand the material better and revise or rewrite the offending passages.

Plagiarism checkers also help students learn innovative writing techniques, improve their writing skills through better research and experience in summarizing ideas, and preserve academic integrity.

Do teachers use plagiarism checkers?

Many teachers use plagiarism checkers to ensure a student’s submission is 100% original work. With the rise of easy-to-use tools like Quetext, checking for authenticity and text matches is a quick and affordable process to scan millions of online data sources.

Using plagiarism checkers also allows teachers to educate their students on the importance of citing sources and the ethical responsibilities of research and opinion writing.

Plagiarism has always been a source of concern for teachers, but until now, options for manual detection have limited their opportunities to identify the problem efficiently. However, the evolution of technology in this area has made the tools more accessible than ever.

How do teachers check a paper for plagiarism?

Teachers are skilled at detecting plagiarism, especially those who have been teaching for a significant period or who teach in the areas of English or Literature. Some teachers use a simple technique of entering a sentence into a search engine to find instances of duplicate text on web pages.

However, this manner of plagiarism detection is manually intensive and dependent upon unreliable algorithms. Some may use their writer’s intuition by identifying anomalies in sentence structure, inconsistencies in vocabulary or grammar, or a combination of all of these.

Others use more sophisticated and robust plagiarism detection software, like Quetext. Quetext can scour millions of sites using DeepSearch™ technology to identify plagiarism in seconds. These tools also enable instructors to work with students to improve their writing and avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future.

Can students get in trouble for accidental plagiarism?

Yes, students can be penalized for plagiarism, even if it was an accident. Unfortunately, instructors have no way of knowing the intent behind plagiarism. Depending on the type of plagiarism, instructors may allow leeway for students to learn from their mistakes and correct the work without the threat of severe consequences.

However, repeat offenders are less likely to receive this flexibility and may face steeper penalties. Additionally, instructors of college-level courses with clear plagiarism guidelines and policies may be less inclined to let students off the hook and instead enforce severe consequences.

Is there a free plagiarism checker for students?

Yes! Quetext offers both a free and a paid subscription for students to seamlessly verify their writing. Quetext goes beyond traditional plagiarism checkers to provide students with advanced technology that puts content through three layers of evaluation in just a matter of seconds. This level of insight enables students to understand the degree to which the text has been plagiarized and decide whether to rewrite the text or use the citation assistant to cite sources.

Quetext also offers a detailed report students can use to document their editing efforts and present as proof of a plagiarism-free, 100% original content document.

Quetext's plagiarism tool also offers flexible pricing for its Pro features which facilitates the citation of online sources, attributions, and real-time feedback for writing improvement.

How can a student check for plagiarism?

Anyone can enter the text from a research paper into a search engine and find potential matches that identify instances of plagiarized content or duplicate content. However, this method is largely ineffective and does not identify every area of concern.

Students can use Quetext's free online plagiarism checker by creating an account, copying and pasting the text in question into the plagiarism checker, and receiving a comprehensive analysis with color-coded feedback, a plagiarism percentage score, and options for editing the text.

Quetext is one of the best plagiarism checkers available with high-quality insights and accurate results.

How to Recognize Plagiarism: Tutorials and Tests

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Welcome to the Indiana University Plagiarism Tutorials and Tests

Learn how to recognize plagiarism, test your understanding, and earn a certificate..

To begin, watch this brief video of a teacher meeting with a student who has committed plagiarism. Click on the one-minute video below.

Why is it important to avoid plagiarism?

The academic community highly values the acknowledgment of contributions to knowledge. When you properly acknowledge the contributions to knowledge made by other people, you are showing respect for their work. You are giving credit where credit is due. You are not misleading the reader to believe that your ideas and words are solely your own.

The disciplinary consequences of documented plagiarism at Indiana University (IU) can be severe. As a student you could receive a failing grade or be expelled from the university. In extreme cases, your degree could be revoked if plagiarism is discovered after you have graduated.

Thus, avoiding plagiarism is important -- both in writing and speaking. This instruction will help you to understand and recognize plagiarism.

How much time does it take to learn from this instruction and to take tests?

Expect to spend about 2-3 hours learning from this instruction and taking Certification Tests . Successful students typically divide their learning time into several shorter sessions. Completing a Certification Test usually takes 5 to 10 minutes. If you do not pass, feedback is provided about the kinds of mistakes you made. You can take as many new Certification Tests as you want. Each randomized test will be different, and there are trillions of unique tests. You are highly unlikely to pass a test solely by guessing .

Why did we develop this online instruction?

We initially developed these online learning resources for our own students. Our original goal: to help students better understand plagiarism when starting their degree programs in Instructional Systems Technology (IST) at IU .

Since 2002, usage of these online resources outside of IST has increased dramatically. See this news article . Many instructors worldwide have adopted these resources, often expecting their students to pass one of our Certification Tests and submit their Certificate. We provide these resources free of charge , and have no control over how others may use them.

For further information, see how we:

• protect your data and privacy ;
• developed this non-profit website for learning ; and
• use learning analytics to improve student achievement.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Our Indiana University website file storage system will be undergoing maintenance from 8 a.m on Saturday, February 5, 2022, to noon on Sunday, February 6, Eastern Standard Time (USA). Registrations, logins, and Certification Tests will be disabled during that time. Tutorials and practice tests should be available during the maintenance.

Click the link below to continue.

Next Page: Organization of this Instruction

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Plagiarism Overview 

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Plagiarism  is  using  someone else’s ideas or words without giving them proper credit.  Plagiarism can range from unintentional (forgetting to include a source in a bibliography) to intentional (buying a paper online, using another writer’s ideas as your own to make your work sound smarter). Beginning writers and expert writers   alike can all plagiarize.  Understand that plagiarism is a serious charge in academia, but also in professional setting s . 

If you are...

• a student — consequences can include failing grades on assignments or classes, academic probation, and even expulsion.
• a researcher — plagiarism can cause a loss of credibility, legal consequences, and other professional consequences.
• an employee in a corporate or similar setting — you can receive a reprimand or lose your job.

It is important to recognize that standards and conventions for citing sources vary from the classroom to scholarly publishing to the professional sphere, sometimes very widely, but in all  situations  we must attribute other people’s words and ideas to their appropriate source.

Please note:  This resource, which does not reflect any official university policy, is designed to help you develop strategies for knowing how to avoid accidental plagiarism. For instructors seeking a key statement on definitions and avoidance on plagiarism, see  Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices .  

In addition, there is a one page handout available that provides an overview of plagiarism with answers to common questions asked about how to avoid it.

Intellectual Challenges in American Academic Writing

There are some intellectual challenges that all students are faced with when writing. Sometimes these challenges can almost seem like contradictions, particularly when addressing them within a single paper.   

For example, American teachers often instruct students to:  

• Develop a topic based on what has already been said and written   BUT write something new and original.  
• Rely on experts’ and authorities’ opinions BUT build upon and/or disagree with those opinions.
• Give credit to previous researchers BUT make your own significant contribution.  
• Improve your English to fit into a discourse community by building upon what you hear and read BUT use your own words and your own voices.  

This may sound confusing, however, something simple to keep in mind when it comes to research is: You are not reinventing the wheel, you are simply contributing in a significant way. For beginners, this can be a challenge, but once you start to see that there is a pattern that is unique to you, you will find that plagiarism is not needed. Remember — your professor or your supervisor want your ideas to build on what is already established or familiar and NOT to simply repurpose someone else’s ideas and calling it your own.   

Why is understanding this so important? Plagiarism is not a victimless crime. Someone, including yourself, will get hurt.   

Designing Activities and Assignments to Discourage Plagiarism

Alice j. robison, bonnie k. smith, writing across the curriculum.

Plagiarism is a serious topic raised frequently when we talk about responding to student writing, and it makes sense that we should want to talk about plagiarism in the context of evaluating and responding to student writing because it is at that moment—after the fact—that we discover that plagiarism or cheating has occurred. The University has provided instructors with a series of strategies for dealing with plagiarism. Thankfully, serious plagiarizers are the exception to the rule in most of our classrooms.

But despite warnings and the threat of punishment, plagiarism does occur, and with increasing frequency. The Council of Writing Program Administrators notes that “with the advent of the Internet and easy access to almost limitless written material on every conceivable topic, suspicion of student plagiarism has begun to affect teachers at all levels, at times diverting them from the work of developing students’ writing, reading, and critical thinking abilities.” 1 So, what can writing instructors do to stop plagiarism before it happens? What strategies are available to instructors as they seek to prevent students from committing the act in the first place? Teaching our students about proper use of sources and citation methods is an important part of discouraging plagiarism, and defining, discussing, and teaching proper use of sources and citation methods is a useful tactic. Experienced instructors concur that it is important to include information on plagiarism in their syllabi, perhaps confirming class discussions with “academic honesty contracts” or institutional “honor codes.”

In addition to these explicit efforts to discourage plagiarism, instructors can also think carefully about course and assignment design. As Sally Cole and Elizabeth Kiss (2000) point out in their article, “What Can We Do About Student Cheating,” “Students are most likely to cheat when they think their assignments are pointless, and least likely to cheat when they admire and respect their teachers and are excited about what they are learning.”

Options for Preventing Plagiarism

Although we may not realize it, the basic requirements for Comm-B and Writing-Intensive courses at UW include many pedagogically sound tactics for teaching writing—activities that can help discourage plagiarism. These guidelines ask instructors to:

• Develop discipline-specific writing activities that encourage students to learn and understand the discourse of a field of study
• Emphasize revision as a routine process for writing
• Conduct regular, one-on-one, in-depth conferences with students about their writing
• Devote class time to preparing students to complete writing assignments
• Implement regular, informal, ungraded writing tasks
• Keep class sizes small
• Ask students to provide regular feedback on their experiences with the course.

Additionally, here are some suggestions for activities that may help you and your students avoid problems, all of which are most effective at the beginning of a course:

• Share the University’s definition of misconduct with your students.
• Share examples of misconduct. For example, show your students an acceptable paraphrase juxtaposed with an unacceptable paraphrase.
• Talk regularly with all of your students about their papers in progress and their evolving ideas for their papers. Regular dialogue with your students not only helps students improve their thinking and writing but also discourages plagiarism.
• Remind your students about documenting sources. And ask them what they already know about documentation, so you can build from their existing experience.
• Decide what violating the rules means in your class. If your course or department does not already bind your course to a specific academic honesty policy, make a policy, communicate that policy to your students, and stick to it.
• Many instructors articulate their own or their department’s academic honesty policies in contract form and have their students sign the contracts at the beginning of the semester. Such a contract serves multiple purposes: it teaches students about their responsibilities as writers, alerts students that you care about academic honesty, discourages students from plagiarizing, and may help you if you have to deal with a plagiarism case.

The following is an example of an academic honesty contract used in my English 100 course.

Designing Assignments to Discourage Plagiarism

Beyond these best practices for teaching writing are several best practices for preventing plagiarism in the writing classroom. In a statement on plagiarism the Council on Writing Program Administrators recommends that instructors improve the design and sequence of assignments, noting that there are things we can do as instructors to design our courses so as not to invite plagiarism:

• Tailor assignments carefully to the content of your course . One of the riskiest things to do is to give generic assignments not tailored to the course. Offering students concrete and specific questions that are situated in the course’s content and learning goals can discourage infinite choice while helping students to understand your expectations. If you provide students with detailed paths of inquiry that are grounded in the subject matter and class activities, you’ll discourage broad, off-topic responses.
• Design assignments that require students to explore a subject in depth . Longer writing assignments that are sequenced (see section on sequencing at the front of this sourcebook)—i.e., “broken up” into smaller, incremental writing tasks—can significantly reduce the opportunity for plagiarism and allow students to think frequently and regularly about the course content and ultimately produce better papers. Activities like student peer review, summarizing sources, and short, sentence- or paragraph-length informal writing assignments as part of a longer, more formal assignment, require students to take ownership over their individual writing processes.
• Ask students to keep an ongoing, consistently revised list of readings and activities that they’ve enjoyed in the course, bringing the list to conferences for further discussion.
• If planning on a term project or paper, ask students to commit early to a broad topic. Then, provide students with due dates for annotated bibliographies, research questions, oral presentations, thesis statements, outlines, beginning paragraphs, etc. Students can (and should) mold their topics as they go, asking and answering questions as they complete the steps of the project.
• Students often report that the one-on-one time they spend with instructors is some of the most helpful and valuable learning they experience. Encourage students to bring their ongoing research to your office hours or to the Writing Center for help discussing how to narrow a topic. Time spent in conference discussing the research a student has already performed can help the student commit to a specific research question or topic that you’ve developed together.
• Develop and sequence assignment schedules for students that allow them time to explore as they work toward defined topics . Allowing space and time for students to master each challenge as they build toward a larger assignment builds confidence in students’ ability to truly learn and understand the material assigned to them. Students are much less likely to cheat if they feel confident in their abilities to master the material on their own. For example, if you regularly assign response papers in your class, think about asking students to first write summaries of the text they’ve been asked to respond to. Then, encourage them to conduct a peer review of those summaries online or outside of class. They’ll quickly find out from each other whether they’ve understood the text, and you’ll spend a lot less time grading summaries instead of critical analyses.
• Coach students through each step of the research process . Let students know that you understand how difficult the writing process can be, and then guide them through it. Many experienced instructors create and distribute handouts on how to find a research question, how to create and sustain a thesis, or how to conduct library research. These guides, written by you, are a wonderful teaching tool. In fact, we’ve included some excellent examples in this sourcebook. See the section on “Coaching Students to Succeed.”
• Make the research process, and technology used for it, visible . The idea here is to make research public. In other words, show students how you found and decided on the readings for the course. Offer up ideas for databases, search terms, websites, and clearinghouses that they can use in their information-gathering activities.
• Develop evaluation criteria that require students to address the particular questions in your assignment so that a “borrowed” or generic paper—no matter how professional—won’t be satisfactory. Sharing your evaluation criteria will communicate to students at the start that you’re holding them accountable for answering specific questions.

Sample Assignments

Though no assignment can be absolutely plagiarism-proof, some assignments are so heavily situated in the context of a course that they truly can make plagiarism less likely. While these assignments are creatively designed, they also require creative responses—not an easy task! Most important, they are designed in such a way that the opportunity for plagiarism or cheating is virtually eliminated, therefore boosting the chances that students will go to their instructors for help (rather than the Internet or a paper file).

From Professor Virginia Sapiro’s Women’s Studies 102 course, this short, informal assignment asks students to adopt a different point of view in order to gain a critical understanding of information sources. As Martians just-arrived on Earth, students analyze current communications media over a two-week time period—an assignment so particular to time and place that it would be extremely difficult to plagiarize.

Martian Media Watch You are a Martian who has just arrived on Earth and, because you are an extremely intelligent being, you pick up a complete command of English in no time. You understand from the earthlings you encounter that the mass media of communication are used regularly on earth to keep people informed of all the important things that are happening. Pick one news medium and follow it carefully for at least two weeks. You may pick one daily newspaper to read every day, or watch television news every day (including some “news analysis” shows) or read a selection of news magazines. You may pick a limited number of news sites on the internet. What do you learn about gender from these media? What, especially, do you learn about women? In the course of your discussion, pay attention to the “quality” and intended audience of your chosen medium (for example, is this an elite, national newspaper such as the New York Times ?) Consider: is the sampling and approach to the news you found the only possible way that news source could have dealt with gender issues at that time? How would you explain why the news was structured as it was in your source(s)? Be sure to integrate your observations into the arguments and observations of the research literature on the mass media.

In a History of the American West seminar, Professor Susan Johnson asks students to write a brief review of the first four books they read together as a class, drawing from the discussion that takes place during those first few weeks of the semester. The papers that result are therefore closely tied to class discussion as students address specific questions that a generic paper won’t likely answer.

Review Essay Write a formal 3-4 page paper that examines and evaluates ideas about “the West” and “the frontier” in the first four books we’ve read collectively (Limerick, Taylor, White, and Cronon). You do not need to concentrate equally on each of these books. And you do not need to limit yourself to a literal reading of what these authors say about the actual terms “the West” and/or “the frontier” (indeed, only two of the authors engage in a wide-ranging discussion of the terms). Instead, you need to make a coherent argument about the intellectual conception of the West or the frontier that emerges from your reading of these four books. Is “the West” a meaningful concept that helps us to understand the historical situations described and analyzed in these books? Is “the frontier”? …These are among the kinds of questions you may want to answer in your paper. Obviously, you can’t answer all of them, and you may have questions other than these that you wish to raise. But your paper should pose a historical question and then answer it relying on the readings we’ve done in common so far.

Rob Emmett teaches an introductory English composition course on argument and ecocriticism. A primary goal of Emmett’s is to help students understand the ways that ecocritics “think and write about non-textual mediations of our environment” so that students can understand argument as it takes shape outside of the readings they do for the course. By sequencing the assignment into small, incremental steps and by asking students to conduct original research in a localized space (the Map Library), Emmett makes it difficult for students to fabricate their research.

Essay: Ecocriticism of Visual Arguments Find at least three maps of a single geographical area (e.g., the city limits of Chicago, the state of Nebraska, or Togo) from three different historical moments (i.e., each should be at least 50 years apart). Analyze the visual arguments made by these maps and consider how and why this representation changed over time. You will need to compare and contrast these images. Your thesis for this option should evaluate these historical changes in representation and possibly predict what a future map of this area will look like based on current trends in land-use or social structure. (For example, the map covering San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico could be redrawn in sixty years as one city-state, “Nuevo California.”) What is included and excluded from the maps at different times? Whose purposes do these exclusions or inclusions serve? Do later additions to the map represent progress? How or why? Include facsimiles of the images in your final portfolio. In addition, it is vital that you incorporate what you have learned in our study of maps and other visual representations of space, especially the arguments made in the oral debate project (forthcoming).

How does UW define plagiarism?

Plagiarism at UW falls under the umbrella of “academic misconduct.” According to chapter 14 of the University of Wisconsin System Administrative code, “Academic Misconduct Subject to Disciplinary Action; (I) Academic misconduct is an act in which a student:

• seeks to claim credit for the work or efforts of another without authorization or citation;
• uses unauthorized materials or fabricated data in any academic exercise;
• forges or falsifies academic documents or records
• intentionally impedes or damages the academic work of others;
• engages in conduct aimed at making false representation of a student’s academic performance;
• assists other students in any of these acts.” (UWS 14.03)

For further information about procedures and penalties imposed on students, instructors should be sure to visit the Dean of Students Office website at http://students.wisc.edu/doso/acadintegrity.html.

What do I do if I suspect a student has committed an act of academic misconduct?

The first thing you should do is carefully read the material from the Dean of Students. Then, we’d recommend you talk with experienced colleagues who’ve handled plagiarism cases before—especially directors of a course. Then, according to the University’s policies, you should set up an informal meeting with the student during which you share your concerns. But before you meet with a student, you need to have a clear goal and plan for what you want to accomplish during the course of the meeting. You should also imagine how the student might respond to your concerns; some students might get angry or cry in such a meeting, and others might quietly agree that they’ve handled the assignment inappropriately. Be prepared for various reactions.

In addition to consulting the university guidelines, you may wish to seek the advice of a colleague or your course coordinator. Additionally, you might consider having a colleague present at the initial meeting with the student. Use the informal meeting as an opportunity to explain your view of the problem. Then, be sure to listen and allow the student an opportunity to respond to your concern.

____________________

1 “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices.”

• Policies & Procedures
• Academic Integrity

How to Avoid Plagiarism

Northwestern's " Principles Regarding Academic Integrity " defines plagiarism as "submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one's own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source." Plagiarism can occur in many forms besides writing: art, music, computer code, mathematics, and scientific work can also be plagiarized. This document pays special attention to plagiarism in writing, but it is important to understand that unauthorized collaboration in a math or science assignment is also plagiarism.

In all academic work, and especially when writing papers, we are building upon the insights and words of others. A conscientious writer always distinguishes clearly between what has been learned from others and what he or she is personally contributing to the reader's understanding. To avoid plagiarism, it is important to understand how to attribute words and ideas you use to their proper source. 

Guidelines for Proper Attribution

Everyone in the university needs to pay attention to the issue of proper attribution. All of us--faculty and students together--draw from a vast pool of texts, ideas, and findings that humans have accumulated over thousands of years; we could not think to any productive end without it. Even the sudden insights that appear at first glance to arrive out of nowhere come enmeshed in other people's thinking. What we call originality is actually the innovative combining, amending, or extending of material from that pool.

Hence each of us must learn how to declare intellectual debts. Proper attribution acknowledges those debts responsibly, usefully, and respectfully. An attribution is responsible when it comes at a location and in a fashion that leaves readers in no doubt about whom you are thanking for what. It is useful when it enables readers to find your source readily for themselves. You help them along the way, just as that same source helped you along yours. To make sure that our attributions are useful, we double-check them whenever we can. Quite literally, it is a habit that pays. Colleagues in every field appreciate the extra care. Nothing stalls a career faster than sloppy, unreliable work.

Finally, an attribution is respectful when it expresses our appreciation for something done well enough to warrant our borrowing it. We should take pride in the intellectual company we keep. It speaks well of us that we have chosen to use the work of intelligent, interesting people, and we can take genuine pleasure in joining our name with theirs.

A Note about Attributions or Citations

The two most commonly used attribution systems—Modern Language Assocation (MLA) and American Psychological Association (APA)-- consist of two parts: (a) a reference or works cited list at the end of the document, giving precise information about how to find a source and (b) parenthetical citations immediately following the material you are citing. Professors and disciplines may vary as to the preferred style for documenting ideas, opinions and facts, but all methods insist upon absolute clarity as to the source and require that all direct quotations be followed by a citation. The best solution is to ask which method your instructors prefer. The reference desk of NU's library has manuals available, but form is not as important as substance.

It is sometimes difficult to judge what needs to be documented. Generally, knowledge which is common to all of us or ideas which have been in the public domain and are found in a number of sources do not need to be cited. Likewise, facts that are accepted by most authorities also do not require a citation. Grey areas, however, exist and sometimes it is difficult to be sure how to proceed. Many people wrongly assume that if they find material on the web, that material is in the public domain and does not need to be cited. However, the same guidelines apply to all sources you use in your work: electronic or print, signed or unsigned. If you are in doubt, err on the side of over-documentation.

The following passages come from a number of sources, including undergraduate essays. They are all appropriately documented using Modern Language Association (MLA) style and each represents a different kind of problem that you will be facing in your own written work.

A. Examples of Proper Citation

1. quoted material and unusual opinion or knowledge.

Source : Vivelo, Jackie. “The Mystery of Nancy Drew . ” Ms. 3.3 (1992): 76-77. Print.

The teenage detective who was once a symbol of spunky female independence has slowly been replaced by an image of prolonged childhood, currently evolving toward a Barbie doll detective. . . . Every few pages bring reminders of Nancy's looks, her clothing, her effect on other people. . . . The first entry in this series carries a description of Nancy: "The tight jeans looked great on her long, slim legs and the green sweater complemented her strawberry-blonde hair."

Use and Adaptation of the Material : Nancy Drew has become a "Barbie doll" version of her old self. She has become superficial and overly concerned with her looks. She is described in the new series as wearing "tight jeans [that] looked great on her long, slim legs” (qtd. in Vivelo 77). She has traded her wits and independent spirit for a great body and killer looks (Vivelo 76-77).

Explanation : The writer has paraphrased most of the material. She discovered that the paraphrased ideas are unusual (not found in other sources). Therefore, she placed a citation at the end of the entire passage. In addition, the writer borrowed a quotation from the Nancy Drew series that she found in the article. The writer has placed quotation marks around that borrowed material and  placed a “quoted in” citation immediately after the quotation.

2. Interpretation

Source: Lehmberg, Stanford. The Peoples of the British Isles: A New History . Vol. I. New York: Wadsworth, 1992. Print. Page 9: One recent theory, advanced by the physicist Gerald Hawkins, holds that Stonehenge was actually an observatory, used to predict the movement of stars as well as eclipses of the sun and moon. Such a structure would have been of great value to an agricultural people, since it would enable them to mark the changing seasons accurately, and it would have conferred seemingly supernatural powers on the religious leaders who knew how to interpret its alignments.

Use and Adaptation of the Material: If Stonehenge were  an astronomical observatory which could predict the coming of spring, summer, and fall, this knowledge would have given tremendous power to the priestly leaders of an agricultural community (Lehmberg 9).

Explanation: The writer has appropriately cited this material since the writer is in debt to someone else for the analysis, even though the writer has not used any direct quotations.

3. Paraphrased Material

Source:    Osborne, Richard, ed. How to Grow Annuals.  2 nd ed. Menlo Park: Lane, 1974. Print. Page 24: As a recent authority has pointed out, for a dependable long-blooming swatch of soft blue in your garden, ageratum is a fine choice. From early summer until frost, ageratum is continuously covered with clustered heads of fine, silky, fringed flowers in dusty shades of lavender-blue, lavender-pink, or white. The popular dwarf varieties grow in mounds six to twelve inches high and twelve inches across; they make fine container plants. Larger types grow up to three feet tall. Ageratum makes an excellent edging.

Use and Adaptation of the Material : You can depend on ageratum if you want some soft blue in your garden. It blooms through the summer and the flowers, soft, small, and fringed, come in various shades of lavender. The small varieties which grow in mounds are very popular, especially when planted in containers. There are also larger varieties. Ageratum is good as a border plant (Osborne 24).

Explanation: The writer has done a good job of paraphrasing what could be considered common knowledge (available in a number of sources), but because the structure and progression of detail is someone else's, the writer has acknowledged the source. This the writer can do at the end of the paragraph since he or she has not used the author's words.

4. Using Other Authors' Examples

Source: Begley, Sharon. "The Puzzle of Genius." Newsweek 28 June 1993: 46+. Print. The creative geniuses of art and science work obsessively. . . .  Bach wrote a cantata every week, even when he was sick or exhausted.

Source: Hotz, Robert. “The Heady Theories on Contours of Einstein's Genius.” Wall Street Journal 2009 May 22, late ed: A9. Print. Although he published 300 scientific papers, Einstein couldn't easily describe the way his mind worked.

Use and Adaptation of the Material If there is a single unifying characteristic about geniuses, it is that they produce. Bach wrote a cantata every week (Begley 50). Einstein drafted over 300 papers (Hotz A9).

Explanation: Instead of finding original examples, the writer has used other authors’ example to back up what the writer had to say; therefore, the writer cited the sources where he found the examples.

5. Using Other Authors' Charts and Graphs

Source: Technorati. State of the Blogosphere 2008.  Technorati, 13 October 2009. Web. 20 November 2009

Use and Adaptation of the Material:

As blogging has evolved, so has its credibility as a communication medium. In its survey for its 2008 State of the Blogosphere Report , Technorati asked a statistically valid representative sample of bloggers world wide about the credibility of the blogging world. The results suggest blogging is becoming more credible as a source of information (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Perceptions of Blogs and Traditional Media. Source: Technorati 2008.

Explanation: Instead of creating an original chart or graph, the writer has used one from an outside source to support what the writer has to say; therefore the graph has been cited both in the textual introduction and also in the caption. If the writer had created an original chart, some of the facts might need citations (see example VIII).

6. Using Class Notes

Source: McKay, Mary. : “Messages in Modern Music.” Northwestern University.  Evanston, IL.  10 Mar. 2010.  Lecture. A. Born in USA--Springsteen's 7th, most popular album a. Recorded with songs on Nebraska album--therefore also about hardship 1. Nebraska about losers and killers b. About America today--Vietnam, nostalgia, unemployment, deterioration of family c. Opening song--many people missed the Vietnam message about how badly vets were treated. class notes--Messages in Modern Music A05 Professor Mary McKay--March 10, 2010

Use and Adaptation of the Material: As Professor McKay has pointed out, many of the songs in Born in the USA (Springsteen's seventh and most popular album), including the title song, were recorded with the songs on Nebraska . Consequently, Born in the USA is also about people who come to realize that life turns out harder and more hurtful than what they might have expected. However, while Nebraska deals with losers and killers, Born in the USA deals more locally with the crumbling of American society--its treatment of returning Vietnam veterans, its need to dwell on past glories, its unemployment and treatment of the unemployed, and the loss of family roots. This is apparent from the opening song of the album "Born in the USA" in which Springsteen sings from the perspective of a Vietnam Veteran.

Explanation: By mentioning Professor McKay’s name in the text itself, the writer has acknowledged that these ideas (which are not commonly held or the writer has not investigated to find out if they are commonly held) come from a lecture. In this instance, because there is no page number to cite, no parenthetical citation is necessary. A reader can go to the entry for McKay in the Works Cited list to find all the necessary specific information about the source.

7. Debatable Facts

Source: Craig, Gordon A. Europe Since 1815. New York: Dryden, 1974. Print. Page 370: In the campaigns of 1915, Russian casualties have been conservatively estimated at more than 2 million.

Source: Stavrianos, Leften.S. The World Since 1500. New York: Prentice Hall, 1966. Print. Page 438: By the end of the summer [of 1915] in addition to military casualties totaling 2,500,000 men, Russia had lost 15 percent of her territories. . . .

Response to the Material Estimates of the number of deaths in Russia during 1915 range from over two million (Craig 370)  to two and a half million (Stavrianos 438).

Explanation: The writer found different facts in different sources; therefore the "facts" needed to be documented.

8. Unusual Facts

Source: Enroth-Cugell, Christina, Lyle F. Mockros, and Robert A. Linsenmeier. “Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern, 1969-1999.” PDF File. Northwestern University Biomedical Engineering. Northwestern University, 4 Sept. 2001. Web. 3 August 2010. The majority of the biomedical engineering faculty from various departments in Tech believed that if the program at Northwestern was to maintain the worldwide reputation for excellence it had achieved and make further progress during the ensuing years, then the curriculum had to continue to include quantitative biology courses on the Evanston Campus. One compelling reason for advocating the reintroduction of such biology courses on the Evanston campus was that by the early 1970's approximately 40% of first year undergraduates in the engineering school were enrolling in the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Engineering Program.

Use and Adaptation of the Material: For decades, biomedical engineering has been one the most popular engineering majors at Northwestern. In fact, in the 1970’s roughly 40% of incoming engineering undergraduates entered the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Engineering Program (Enroth-Cugell, Mockros and Linsenmeier, 3)

Explanation: The writer found this fact in only one source and wants his reader to know where to find it.

B. Examples of Plagiarism

Failure to acknowledge the sources from which we borrow ideas, examples, words and the progression of thought constitutes plagiarism. Here are some examples.

1. Direct Plagiarism

Source Material From: Ekman, Paul, Wallace V. Friesen, and Phoebe Ellsworth.  Emotion in the Human Face: Guidelines for Research and an Integration of Findings . New York: Pergamon, 1972. Print.

Page 1: The human face in repose and in movement, at the moment of death as in life, in silence and in speech, when alone and with others, when seen or sensed from within, in actuality or as represented in art or recorded by the camera is a commanding, complicated, and at times confusing source of information. The face is commanding because of its very visibility and omnipresence. While sounds and speech are intermittent, the face even in repose can be informative. And, except by veils or masks, the face cannot be hidden from view. There is no facial maneuver equivalent to putting one's hands in one's pockets. Further, the face is the location for sensory inputs, life-necessary intake, and communicative output. The face is the site for the sense receptors of taste, smell, sight, and hearing, the intake organs for food, water, and air, and the output location for speech. The face is also commanding because of its role in early development; it is prior to language in the communication between parent and child.

Misuse of source (italicized passages indicate direct plagiarism): Many experts agree that the human face , whether in repose or in movement, is a commanding, complicated, and sometimes confusing source of information. The face is commanding because it's visible and omnipresent. Although sounds and speech may be intermittent, the face even in repose may give information. And, except by veils or masks, the face cannot be hidden. Also, the face is the location for sensory inputs, life-supporting intake, and communication.

Comment The plagiarized passage is an almost verbatim copy of the original source. The writer has compressed the author's opinions into fewer sentences by omitting several phrases and sentences. But this compression does not disguise the writer's reliance on this text for the concepts he passes off as his own. The writer tries to disguise his indebtedness by beginning with the phrase "Many experts agree that. . . . " This reference to "many experts" makes it appear that the writer was somehow acknowledging the work of scholars "too numerous to mention." The plagiarized passage makes several subtle changes in language (e.g., it changes "visibility and omnipresence" to "it's visible and omnipresent"). The writer has made the language seem more informal in keeping with his own writing style. He ignores any embellishments or additional information given in the source-passage. He contents himself with borrowing the sentence about how only masks and veils can hide the face, without using the follow-up elaboration about there not being a "facial equivalent to putting one's hands in one's pockets." He also reduces the source's list of the face's diverse activities at the end of the paragraph.

Had the writer enclosed the borrowed material in quotation marks and credited the authors of the Emotions book with a parenthetical citation, this would have been a legitimate use of a source.

2. The Mosaic

Source Material From: Fishman, Joshua. Language in Sociocultural Change. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972. Print.

Page 67: In a relatively open and fluid society there will be few characteristics of lower-class speech that are not also present (albeit to a lesser extent) in the speech of the working and lower middle classes. Whether we look to phonological features such as those examined by Labov or to morphological units such as those reported by Fischer (1958) (Fischer studied the variation between -in' and -ing for the present participle ending, i.e. runnin' vs. running and found that the former realization was more common when children were talking to each other than when they were talking to him, more common among boys than girls, and more common among "typical boys" than among "model boys"), we find not a clear-cut cleavage between the social classes but a difference in rate of realization of particular variants of particular variables for particular contexts. Even the widely publicized distinction between the "restricted code" of lower-class speakers and the "elaborate code" of middle-class speakers (Bernstein 1964, 1966) is of this type, since Bernstein includes the cocktail party and the religious service among the social situations in which restricted codes are realized. Thus, even in the somewhat more stratified British setting, the middle class is found to share some of the features of what is considered to be "typically" lower-class speech. Obviously then, "typicality," if it has any meaning at all in relatively open societies, must refer largely to repertoire range rather than to unique features of the repertoire.

Misuse of source (italicized passages indicate direct plagiarism): In a relatively fluid society many characteristics of lower-class speech will also be found among the working and lower middle classes. Labov and Fischer's studies show that there is not a clear-cut cleavage between social classes but only a difference in the frequency of certain speech modes. All classes share certain speech patterns. The difference among classes would only be apparent by the frequency with which speech expressions or patterns appeared. By this standard, then, Bernstein's distinction between the "restricted code" of the lower-class speakers and the "elaborated code" of middle-class speakers is useful only up to a point, since Bernstein mentions cocktail parties and religious services as examples of "restricted speech" groupings. "Typicality" refers more to speech "range" than to particular speech features.

Comment While this passage contains relatively few direct borrowings from the original source, all its ideas and opinions are lifted from it. The writer hides her dependency on the source by translating its academic terms into more credible language for a novice in sociology. For example, the plagiarist steers clear of sophisticated terms like "phonological features," "morphological units," and "repertoire range." However, her substitutions are in themselves clues to her plagiarism, since they over-generalize the source's meaning. The writer seems to acknowledge secondary sources when she refers to Labov's and Fischer's studies, but she obviously has no first-hand knowledge of their research. If she had consulted these studies, she should have cited them directly and included them in the Works Cited list, rather than pretending that both she and her audience would be completely familiar with them. She intertwines her own opinions with the source and forms a confused, plagiarized mass.

The writer should have acknowledged her indebtedness to her source by eliminating borrowed phrases and crediting her paragraph as a paraphrase of the original material. She could also have put quotation marks around the borrowed phrases and cited them appropriately: “As Fishman explains, phonological studies by Labov and Fischer show that “there is not a clear-cut cleavage between social classes but only a difference” in the frequency of certain speech modes (Fishman 67).

3. Paraphrase

Source : The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Cliffs Notes, n.d. Web. 4 August 2010.

THE DISCIPLINE OF THE CODE HERO If the old traditional values are no good anymore, if they will not serve man, what values then will serve man? Hemingway rejects things of abstract qualities courage, loyalty, honesty, bravery. These are all just words. What Hemingway would prefer to have are concrete things. For Hemingway a man can be courageous in battle on Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock. But this does not mean that he will be courageous on Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock. A single act of courage does not mean that a man is by nature courageous. Or a man who has been courageous in war might not be courageous in some civil affair or in some other human endeavor. What Hemingway is searching for are absolute values, which will be the same, which will be constant at every moment of every day and every day of every week. Ultimately, therefore, for Hemingway the only value that will serve man is an innate faculty of self-discipline. This is a value that grows out of man's essential being, in his inner nature. If a man has discipline to face one thing on one day he will still possess that same degree of discipline on another day and in another situation. Thus Francis Macomber in the short story "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber," has faced a charging animal, and once he has had the resolution to stand and confront this charging beast, he has developed within himself a discipline that will serve him in all situations. This control can function in almost any way in a Hemingway work.

Misuse of source: Hemingway tries to discover the values in life that will best serve man. Since Hemingway has rejected traditional values, he himself establishes a kind of "code" for his heroes. This code is better seen than spoken of. The Hemingway hero doesn't speak of abstract qualities like courage and honesty. He lives them. But this living of values entails continual performance the Hemingway hero is always having his values put to the test.

How can the hero be up to this continual test? Hemingway stresses the faculty of self-discipline as the backbone of all other virtues. Self-discipline places man's good qualities on a continuum. The dramatic change in Francis Macomber in "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" stems more from his new-found self-control than from any accidental combination of traits.

Comment This illustrates plagiarism since the writer used the notion of the "Hemingway code hero" presented in Cliffs Notes as the sole basis for his own essay. He has absorbed his source's concepts, re-phrased them, and, perhaps, made them simpler. But there is a one-to-one relationship between the development of ideas in the Cliffs Notes and the plagiarist’s rendition.

The first two sentences of the plagiarist's are directly borrowed from his source; the remaining sentences are more artfully disguised. The worst feature of this idea-copying is that it seems to be the end product of a close reading of Hemingway's "Short, Happy Life," the writer makes it appear that his comments are based on this short story.

The writing here would be acceptable if he had written the same paraphrase with the proper acknowledgement of his source.

4. Insufficient Acknowledgement

Source: Laven, Peter. Renaissance Italy: 1464-1534. New York: Capricorn, 1964. Print.

The tenacious particularism of the Italian state gave rise to a wide variety of constitutional solutions and class structures throughout Italy. Even conquered territories and those swallowed up by bigger neighboring powers often managed to retain much of their internal organization as it had been. If power changed hands, the instruments and forms of power usually remained the same. Since the economic needs of such territories did not suddenly alter with a change of government or master, those classes which had been important before the change tended to continue to be important afterwards as well. Only when the nature of the change was economic and social might there have been a reversal in the relationships of classes; but even in this there was no sudden revolution in the structure of classes.

Misuse of source: In his comprehensive study, Renaissance Italy , Peter Laven discusses the peculiar organization of Renaissance city-states: “The tenacious particularism of the Italian states gave rise to a wide variety of constitutional solutions and class structures throughout Italy. Even conquered territories and those swallowed up by bigger neighboring powers often managed to retain much of their internal organization as it had been”(130). This means that if power changed hands, the instruments and forms of power usually remained the same. Since the economic needs of such territories did not suddenly alter with a change of government or master, those classes which had been important before the change tended to continue to be important afterwards as well. Only when the nature of the change was economic and social might there have been a reversal in the relationships of classes; but even in this there was no sudden revolution in the structure of classes.

Comment This half-crediting of a source is a common form of plagiarism. It stems either from a desire to credit one's source and copy it too, or from ignorance as to where to footnote. The general rule is to footnote after rather than before your resource material. In this case, the plagiarist credits historian Peter Laven with two quoted sentences and then continues using the author without giving acknowledgement. The writer disguises the direct plagiarism as a paraphrase by using the falsely-explanatory phrase "This means that ..." in the third sentence. This example of plagiarism is especially reprehensible because the writer seemingly acknowledges his source--but not enough.

This guide was prepared with contributions from many people, including members of the Undergraduate Council. Mark Sheldon, Assistant Dean for Academic Integrity in WCAS, assisted with the organization of the document and worked with Barbara Shwom of the WCAS Writing Program to update the material. The section on attribution was written by Jean Smith of the WCAS Writing Program, with help from Bob Wiebe of the History Department. Contributors include Katrina Cucueco (Speech '96), Ryan Garino (CAS '98), Scott Goldstein (Tech '96), and Jean Smith and Ellen Wright of the Writing Program. The examples of plagiarism and comments are based upon Sources: Their Use and Acknowledgement (published by Dartmouth College).

For more on plagiarism, see Charles Lipson, Doing Honest Work in College. How to Prepare Citations, Avoid Plagiarism, and achieve Real Academic Success (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2004).

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Plagiarism and Collaboration

The College recognizes that the open exchange of ideas plays a vital role in the academic endeavor, as often it is only through discussion with others that one is fully able to process information or to crystallize an elusive concept. Therefore, students generally are encouraged to engage in conversations with their teachers and classmates about their courses, their research, and even their assignments. These kinds of discussions and debates in some ways represent the essence of life in an academic community. And yet, it is important for all scholars to acknowledge clearly when they have relied upon or incorporated the work of others. To ensure the proper use of sources while at the same time recognizing and preserving the importance of the academic dialogue, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences adopted the following policy, which you can also find in the Student Handbook.

It is expected that all homework assignments, projects, lab reports, papers, theses, and examinations and any other work submitted for academic credit will be the student’s own. Students should always take great care to distinguish their own ideas and knowledge from information derived from sources. The term “sources” includes not only primary and secondary material published in print or online, but also information and opinions gained directly from other people. Quotations must be placed properly within quotation marks and must be cited fully. In addition, all paraphrased material must be acknowledged completely. Whenever ideas or facts are derived from a student’s reading and research or from a student’s own writings, the sources must be indicated (see also “Submission of the Same Work to More Than One Course” below.)

Students must also comply with the policy on collaboration established for each course, as set forth in the course syllabus or on the course website. Policies vary among the many fields and disciplines in the College, and may even vary for particular assignments within a course. Unless otherwise stated on the syllabus or website, when collaboration is permitted within a course students must acknowledge any collaboration and its extent in all submitted work; however, students need not acknowledge discussion with others of general approaches to the assignment or assistance with proofreading. If the syllabus or website does not include a policy on collaboration, students may assume that collaboration in the completion of assignments is permitted. Collaboration in the completion of examinations is always prohibited.

The responsibility for learning the proper forms of citation lies with the individual student. Students are expected to be familiar with the Harvard Guide to Using Sources. Students who are in any doubt about the preparation of academic work should consult their instructor and Resident Dean before the work is prepared or submitted.

Students who, for whatever reason, submit work either not their own or without clear attribution to its sources will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including requirement to withdraw from the College. Students who have been found responsible for any violation of these standards will not be permitted to submit course evaluation of the course in which the infraction occurred.

Submission of the Same Work to More Than One Course

It is the expectation of every course that all work submitted for a course or for any other academic purpose will have been done solely for that course or for that purpose. If the same or similar work is to be submitted to any other course or used for any other academic purpose within the College, the prior written permission of the instructor must be obtained. If the same or similar work is to be submitted to more than one course or used for more than one academic purpose within the College during the same term, the prior written permission of all instructors involved must be obtained. A student who submits the same or similar work to more than one course or for more than one academic purpose within the College without such prior permission is subject to disciplinary action, up to and including requirement to withdraw from the College.

Students are urged to consult their Resident Dean or the instructors involved with questions concerning this important matter (see also “Plagiarism and Collaboration” above).

Tutoring Schools and Term Paper Companies

In keeping with the principle that all material submitted to a course should be the student’s own work, any undergraduate who makes use of the services of a commercial tutoring school or term paper company is liable to disciplinary action. Students who sell lecture or reading notes, papers, or translations, or who are employed by a tutoring school or term paper company, are similarly liable and may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including requirement to withdraw from the College. If a student wishes to accept compensation for private tutoring in Harvard courses, prior written permission of the Dean of the College is required.

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• Consequences of Mild, Moderate & Severe Plagiarism

Consequences of Mild, Moderate & Severe Plagiarism

Published on October 18, 2021 by Tegan George . Revised on May 30, 2024.

If you use someone else’s words or ideas without properly crediting them, you could be committing plagiarism . The consequences of plagiarism vary based on the severity of the offense.

Plagiarism can also have serious consequences in high school and during the college application process . Many high schools use plagiarism checkers and treat plagiarism the same way colleges do, and admissions officers will typically disregard your application if they find you’ve plagiarized any part of it.

Table of contents

What colleges say about the consequences of plagiarism, why is plagiarism so serious, frequently asked questions about plagiarism.

Plagiarism in college has serious consequences, even when committed by accident. You can usually find the details of your institution’s plagiarism policy and examples of plagiarism in your code of conduct. If you’re unsure about the specifics, ask your instructor.

Some examples from different institutions are shown below.

• American University
• Cerro Coso Community College

“Academic Integrity Code violations are treated very seriously. The misperceived short-term gain from these acts is not worth the long-term consequences of the penalty.

“Sanctions for code violations include loss of credit for the assignment, a failing grade for the course, a permanent notation on the transcript, and dismissal from the university. Second offenses will result in suspension or dismissal from the university.”

Source: American University

“While it is recognized that scholarly work often involves reference to the ideas, data and conclusions of other scholars, intellectual honesty requires that such references be explicitly and clearly noted. Plagiarism is a serious academic offence.”

Source: University of Calgary

“If you are found responsible for academic misconduct, appropriate grade penalties for the infraction will be at the discretion of the instructor in accordance to the syllabus or the course/department policy, if applicable. Grade penalties can range from a grade reduction on the assessment to failure of the course.

In addition, you may also be assigned college sanctions by the Office of Student Academic Affairs.   Most first-time offenses of academic misconduct result in a college-level sanction of disciplinary probation.  

Source: University of Michigan

“An instructor who determines that a student has cheated or plagiarized has a range of many options, which may be as severe as giving the student a failing grade for the course. Furthermore, the student may face other penalties as stated in the college’s Student Conduct Policy. Finally, it must be understood that a student who knowingly aids in another student’s cheating e.g., permitting the other student to copy a paper or examination question, is as guilty as the other of the offense.”

Source: Cerro Coso Community College

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

You might wonder why universities and other organizations impose such serious consequences for plagiarism, even when it’s accidental.

Plagiarism amounts to theft, and there are good reasons for institutions (and for you!) to take it seriously. Plagiarism:

• Is dishonest : When done deliberately, plagiarism indicates that the person responsible is not honest about their work, which is a problem in any context.
• Harms the person you’re plagiarizing: It’s easy to see why you wouldn’t want your writing stolen and passed off as someone else’s—especially in publishing.
• Hinders the learning process: If you’re stealing words and ideas from others, your own creativity is not being tested, and you’re not learning.
• Obscures the sources of ideas: All academic writing builds on the ideas of others, and it’s important that the reader can clearly trace where those ideas came from.
• Results in bad writing: Whatever the quality of the text(s) you’re plagiarizing, a paper made up of a patchwork of different unacknowledged sources is usually a mess.

The consequences of plagiarism vary depending on the type of plagiarism and the context in which it occurs. For example, submitting a whole paper by someone else will have the most severe consequences, while accidental citation errors are considered less serious.

If you’re a student, then you might fail the course, be suspended or expelled, or be obligated to attend a workshop on plagiarism. It depends on whether it’s your first offense or you’ve done it before.

As an academic or professional, plagiarizing seriously damages your reputation. You might also lose your research funding or your job, and you could even face legal consequences for copyright infringement.

Plagiarism has serious consequences , and can indeed be illegal in certain scenarios.

While most of the time plagiarism in an undergraduate setting is not illegal, plagiarism or self-plagiarism in a professional academic setting can lead to legal action, including copyright infringement and fraud. Many scholarly journals do not allow you to submit the same work to more than one journal, and if you do not credit a co-author, you could be legally defrauding them.

Even if you aren’t breaking the law, plagiarism can seriously impact your academic career. While the exact consequences of plagiarism vary by institution and severity, common consequences include: a lower grade, automatically failing a course, academic suspension or probation, or even expulsion.

Plagiarism is a form of theft, since it involves taking the words and ideas of others and passing them off as your own. As such, it’s academically dishonest and can have serious consequences .

Plagiarism also hinders the learning process, obscuring the sources of your ideas and usually resulting in bad writing. Even if you could get away with it, plagiarism harms your own learning.

Accidental plagiarism is one of the most common examples of plagiarism . Perhaps you forgot to cite a source, or paraphrased something a bit too closely. Maybe you can’t remember where you got an idea from, and aren’t totally sure if it’s original or not.

These all count as plagiarism, even though you didn’t do it on purpose. When in doubt, make sure you’re citing your sources . Also consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.

Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.

Self-plagiarism means recycling work that you’ve previously published or submitted as an assignment. It’s considered academic dishonesty to present something as brand new when you’ve already gotten credit and perhaps feedback for it in the past.

If you want to refer to ideas or data from previous work, be sure to cite yourself.

If you’re concerned that you may have self-plagiarized, Scribbr’s Self-Plagiarism Checker can help you turn in your paper with confidence. It compares your work to unpublished or private documents that you upload, so you can rest assured that you haven’t unintentionally plagiarized.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

George, T. (2024, May 30). Consequences of Mild, Moderate & Severe Plagiarism. Scribbr. Retrieved September 6, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/plagiarism/consequences-of-plagiarism/

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Guidance on understanding plagiarism and how to improve your academic writing to ensure good academic practice.

• Newcastle University
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• Good Academic Practice

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism at Newcastle University is defined as:

the use of ideas or works from another source, presented as your own, without specific acknowledgement

This covers all types of work, for example: ideas, words, data, designs, images, music and computer code, and may also involve the use of electronic materials and the use of material generated through use of artificial intelligence.

The University takes plagiarism and academic misconduct seriously and has clear  academic misconduct procedures in place.

While plagiarism can be intentional, often it is unintentionally caused by poor academic writing, inaccurate notetaking or incorrect referencing.

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What does plagiarism look like?

While the definition of plagiarism may seem quite simple, it can take a number of different forms:

This form of plagiarism occurs when someone  copies a section of work word for word without clear and full acknowledgement of the source . In some subjects, using direct quotes to illustrate an argument or analysis is standard practice. However,  all direct quotations must be written in quotation marks and require an accurate reference . A reference is also needed if you directly copy or reuse an image, piece of music, data or computer code that was produced originally by someone else.

If you  paraphrase the work of others without clear and full acknowledgement of the source, this is plagiarism . This may take the form of copying a section of another person’s work and changing one or two words or phrases without providing a reference to the original work, or patching together pieces of work by different authors to form a paragraph, without acknowledging any of the sources.  Summarising the work of another is acceptable practice, but the source must be acknowledged.

Acquiring work produced by someone else and submitting it as your own  demonstrates a lack of academic integrity and  is a form of plagiarism . Whether copied from a friend, produced by a family member or paid for using a custom essay writing service,  if the work you submit is not your own effort, it is plagiarism . Even if a piece of work is original, unless you created it, this would be an attempt to pass off the work of someone else as your own.

Working with other students to produce a piece of work that you submit for individual assessment  (unless group work is clearly stipulated in the assessment criteria)  is a form of plagiarism known as collusion . This can happen in take home exams or for assignment submissions. Collusion can include allowing another student to copy your assessed work or providing opportunity for them to do so. Some levels of proof reading may also be considered collusion.

This takes the form of  submitting the same work for more than one assignment, whether for two modules at Newcastle, or re-using work you've submitted at another university as part of a different degree . Where you submit the whole or part of the same piece of work for different assessments, you are receiving credit for the same piece of intellectual work, a practice known as “double counting.” This is  not the same as self-citation, where you reference yourself  in a previously published or submitted piece of work  in the process of creating something new . This is good academic practice, and is more commonly found in postgraduate work, where candidates may want to develop an idea or interest from their undergraduate or taught postgraduate dissertations, or later in their career where they may have amassed a body of work on a specific research field.

Artificial Intelligence and Your Learning

Guidance to help you responsibly and openly engage with Artificial Intelligence for your studies.

How do you avoid plagiarism?

These are some key ways in which you can avoid plagiarism:

• Acknowledge all the sources of information you use in your work by providing accurate in-text citations and complete references. Explore the range of tools available to help you write and manage your references on our Referencing page.
• Follow the referencing style recommended by your School. Familiarise yourself with the rules of your referencing style so that you can spot mistakes or referencing omissions in your writing.
• Think about the best way to integrate what you have read into your writing. Look at our guides to paraphrasing and quoting below to find out how to effectively structure your writing in line with good academic practice.
• Take accurate notes when reading and researching. Keeping an accurate record of where you’ve found ideas and when you've copied direct quotations can help you avoid accidental plagiarism. Our Reading and Note-taking and Managing Information pages provide lots of advice on managing your research.
• Do not fabricate or falsify data. Honesty is a key part of academic integrity, and accuracy in your work demonstrates good academic practice.
• Never give or receive unauthorised help with academic work. If you’re asking someone to check your work, look at our advice for Working with a Proofreader to make sure the work remains your own.
• Only hand in work that you have done yourself. Work submitted should be created by you.
• Do not submit work that you have already submitted for another assignment, whether the work was submitted at Newcastle University or another institution. If appropriate, use self-citation to highlight previous work that is relevant to your current assessment.

How to paraphrase

Learn how to express the source you’re reading in your own words to highlight your learning.

Quote or paraphrase?

Quote the original words of your source, or paraphrase them in your own words? Read our advice on deciding which will work best for your purpose.

How to quote

Find out how to integrate quotations purposefully and smoothly into your writing.

Cite Them Right tutorial

Log in to Cite Them Right to access their referencing and plagiarism tutorial.

Find out how to accurately acknowledge the sources of information you use in your work.

Managing information

Explore ways to manage the information you find so that you can use it efficiently, ethically and with academic integrity.

Online resources

Plagiarism quiz

Put your knowledge to the test in our referencing quiz. **Online quiz**

Academic Skills Team

For more guidance on your learning, book a one-to-one tutorial with one of our tutors or visit our website for more activities and resources.

The Sheridan Libraries

• Avoiding Plagiarism
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• Avoiding Plagiarism at JHU
• What is Plagiarism?
• School Plagiarism Policies
• Common Knowledge
• Paraphrasing & Summarizing
• Minimizing Your Plagiarism Risk
• Student Help
• Helping Prevent Plagiarism in Your Classroom
• Avoiding Plagiarism Course
• Course FAQs

Plagiarism is defined as taking for your own use the words, ideas, concepts or data of someone else without giving proper credit. JHU takes plagiarism seriously. Students caught plagiarizing can face a range of sanctions from failing an assignment to being asked to leave a program. JHU requires academic excellence through original thought and the respectful sharing of ideas. Plagiarism undermines this goal. Through this guide and the associated online course, learn more about how you can avoid plagiarism in your academic career and beyond. 

Explore the Guide

We review the definition of plagiarism and common knowledge, in addition to how to cite, quote, paraphrase, and summarize. Also, we show how different choices and factors can increase or decrease our risk of plagiarizing. Explore the pages in the navigation menu to get an overview, and take the Avoiding Plagiarism course for a deeper look at these topics. 

Take the Course and Receive your Certificate 

For an interactive way to learn this information and more, take the Avoiding Plagiarism at JHU course on MyLearning. This course will help you learn the basics of avoiding plagiarism during your academic career and beyond. It provides detailed information, activities, and quizzes to check your knowledge. If you successfully complete the module, you will ensure you know how to avoid plagiarism and receive a certificate.

Take the Course (JHED ID required)

If you run into any technical difficulties, please first review the directions and the course home page, and if you still need help, fill out the Avoiding Plagiarism Technical Help Form .

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• Last Updated: Aug 12, 2024 1:18 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/avoidingplagiarism

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ENG 101 - Okey

Avoiding plagiarism.

• Useful Databases at CSN Libraries
• Choosing a Research Topic
• How To Search Databases
• Verifying Sources (CRAAP Method)
• Citing in MLA

The entire section below came from a research guide from Iowa State University.  To avoid plagiarism, one must provide a reference to that source to indicate where the original information came from (see the "Source:" section below).

"There are many ways to avoid plagiarism, including developing good research habits, good time management, and taking responsibility for your own learning. Here are some specific tips:

• Don't procrastinate with your research and assignments. Good research takes time. Procrastinating makes it likely you'll run out of time or be unduly pressured to finish. This sort of pressure can often lead to sloppy research habits and bad decisions. Plan your research well in advance, and seek help when needed from your professor, from librarians and other campus support staff.
• Commit to doing your own work. If you don't understand an assignment, talk with your professor. Don't take the "easy way" out by asking your roommate or friends for copies of old assignments. A different aspect of this is group work. Group projects are very popular in some classes on campus, but not all. Make sure you clearly understand when your professor says it's okay to work with others on assignments and submit group work on assignments, versus when assignments and papers need to represent your  own  work.
•  Be 100% scrupulous   in your note taking. As you prepare your paper or research, and as you begin drafting your paper. One good practice is to clearly label in your notes your own ideas (write "ME" in parentheses) and ideas and words from others (write "SMITH, 2005" or something to indicate author, source, source date). Keep good records of the sources you consult, and the ideas you take from them. If you're writing a paper, you'll need this information for your bibliographies or references cited list anyway, so you'll benefit from good organization from the beginning.
• Cite your sources scrupulously. Always cite other people's work, words, ideas and phrases that you use directly or indirectly in your paper. Regardless of whether you found the information in a book, article, or website, and whether it's text, a graphic, an illustration, chart or table, you need to cite it. When you use words or phrases from other sources, these need to be in quotes. Current style manuals are available at most reference desks and online. They may also give further advice on avoiding plagiarism.
• Understand good paraphrasing. Simply using synonyms or scrambling an author's words and phrases and then using these "rewrites" uncredited in your work is plagiarism, plain and simple. Good paraphrasing requires that you genuinely understand the original source, that you are genuinely using your own words to summarize a point or concept, and that you insert in quotes any unique words or phrases you use from the original source.  Good paraphrasing also requires that you cite the original source.  Anything less and you veer into the dangerous territory of plagiarism."

Source: Vega García, S.A. (2012). Understanding plagiarism: Information literacy guide. Iowa State University. Retrieved from  http://instr.iastate.libguides.com/content.php?pid=10314 . [Accessed January 3, 2017]

• Preventing Plagiarism when Writing This is a link to further information on "Avoiding Plagiarism." Along with the information provided above, you can look here to check for plagiarism in your own papers.
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• Last Updated: Aug 30, 2024 11:18 AM
• URL: https://libguides.csn.edu/c.php?g=1421365