Plagiarism

Plagiarism occurs when a person represents someone else’s words, ideas, phrases, sentences or data as one’s own work. When submitting work that includes someone else’s words, ideas, syntax, data or organizational patterns, the source of that information must be acknowledged through complete, accurate and specific references. All verbatim statements must be appropriately acknowledged. To avoid a charge of plagiarism, a person should be sure to include an acknowledgment of indebtedness and reference to these sources directly in the text clearly associated with the material being cited and in a bibliography or “works cited” page (this does not apply to a “works consulted” list where the source might not have been incorporated into the student’s text). Plagiarism can be said to have occurred without any affirmative showing that a student’s use of another’s work was intentional.

Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to:

1. Acquiring a term paper or other assignment and submitting it as your own work.
2. Submitting a computer program, computer graphic, database, etc., as original work that duplicates, in whole or in part, without citation, the work of another.
3. Quoting, paraphrasing or even borrowing the syntax of another’s words without acknowledging the source.
4. Incorporating facts, statistics or other illustrative material taken from a source, without acknowledging the source, unless the information is common knowledge.
5. Using another’s ideas, opinions or theories even if they have been completely paraphrased in one’s own words without acknowledging the source.
6. Listing a source in a bibliography or “works cited” page without specifically citing the material within the text that was extracted from the source.