WHAT
IS PLAGIARISM?
If you use another person's work and do not
attribute that work to the author, including copying text verbatim,
paraphrasing a phrase or summarizing an idea, you are essentially committing
plagiarism. Plagiarism usually occurs when a writer fails to:
- cite
quotes or ideas written by another author;
- enclose
direct text in quotes; or
- put
summaries and/or paraphrases in the his or her own words.
plagiarism can also happen in songs or other types
of works that may be too similar to another artist's creation. Plagiarism may
be done deliberately or accidentally; either way, plagiarism is a serious
offense. Committing plagiarism could be grounds for expelling a student from a
university, terminating a professor's teaching contract, or suing an artist for
monetary compensation.
THE
COMMON TYPES OF PLAGIARISM
There are different types of plagiarism and all are
serious violations of academic honesty.
v Direct
Plagiarism
Direct plagiarism is
the word-for-word transcription of a section of someone else’s work, without
attribution and without quotation marks. The deliberate plagiarism of someone
else's work is unethical, academically dishonest, and grounds for disciplinary
actions, including expulsion.
v Self
Plagiarism
Self-plagiarism occurs
when a student submits his or her own previous work, or mixes parts of previous
works, without permission from all professors involved. For example, it would
be unacceptable to incorporate part of a term paper you wrote in high school
into a paper assigned in a college course. Self-plagiarism also applies to
submitting the same piece of work for assignments in different classes without
previous permission from both professors.
v Mosaic
Plagiarism
Mosaic Plagiarism
occurs when a student borrows phrases from a source without using quotation
marks, or finds synonyms for the author’s language while keeping to the same
general structure and meaning of the original. Sometimes called “patch
writing,” this kind of paraphrasing, whether intentional or not, is
academically dishonest and punishable – even if you footnote your source
v Accidental
Plagiarism
Accidental plagiarism
occurs when a person neglects to cite their sources, or misquotes their
sources, or unintentionally paraphrases a source by using similar words, groups
of words, and/or sentence structure without attribution. (See example for
mosaic plagiarism.) Students must learn how to cite their sources and to take
careful and accurate notes when doing research. (See the Note-Taking section on
the Avoiding Plagiarism page.) Lack of intent does not absolve the student of
responsibility for plagiarism. Cases of accidental plagiarism are taken as
seriously as any other plagiarism and are subject to the same range of
consequences as other types of plagiarism.
THE
PROBLEM WITH PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism has been a problem in schools and
universities for years, but has become even more prevalent with the birth of
the Internet. Search engines make it easy to find thousands of authors' works
immediately, which can then be copied and pasted for a school paper, article,
book, etc. Recently, 48 University of Virginia students quit or were expelled
for plagiarism, and studies have shown that most college students know that
plagiarism is wrong. Yet, students plagiarize anyway because they believe they
will not get caught. Other students simply do not understand how to properly
cite sources, resulting in many cases of accidental plagiarism.
Web sites today often provide complete essays on
nearly any topic, making it easy for students to copy another person's work and
pass it off as their own. Sometimes called "paper mills," some of
these Web sites offer completed papers, while others allow students to trade
their completed papers among one another.
WHAT
ARE THE LEGAL CONSEQUENCES OF PLAGIARISM?
Most already know that plagiarism is an ethical
infraction and a violation of your school or workplace’s honor code. If you’re
caught plagiarizing, you can be punished by your school, fired from your job,
or even have your career ruined.
But what about legal consequences? Is it possible
for a plagiarist to get sued or, even worse, face criminal action? The answer
is that it depends on the nature of the plagiarism. The most obvious way that a
plagiarism can become a legal issue is copyright infringement. Copyright is a
set of exclusive rights granted to the creator of an original work. Plagiarism,
often times, violates those rights both by copying the work without permission
and distributing it.
However, copyright is not the only way for
plagiarism to end up in court. Outside the classroom, when submitting research
grants or providing projects to clients, there are often contracts that require
the work submitted to be original. Plagiarism is a breach of that contract and
can result in a lawsuit.
SOURCES
