What is plagiarism?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines plagiarism as “the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one’s own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc.) of another,” or “a purloined idea, design, passage, or work.” Any time you use ideas that are not your own in anything that you write, you must supply a citation in an identifiable citation method, e.g., MLA, Chicago, etc. See Plagiarism.org for a more detailed definition.

Willful plagiarism will result in automatic failure of this class and will be pursued to incite the utmost penalty for such dishonesty. Academic falsehood, in any form, will constitute class failure.

Remember two things:

• If you use the language of your source, you must quote it exactly, enclose it in quotation marks, and cite the source, using MLA citation style in all my courses. A paraphrase employs source material by restating an idea in an entirely new form that is original in both sentence structure and word choice. Taking the basic structure from a source and substituting a few words is an unacceptable paraphrase and may be construed as plagiarism. Creating a new sentence by merging the wording of two or more sources is also plagiarism.


• If you use ideas or information that are not common knowledge, you must cite a source. (from MIT’s Open Courseware)

Unsure as to what to cite, when to cite, and how to cite? Check your handbook for the best information. You might also try this tutorial or see some examples.