Plagiarism

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It is of the utmost importance that you are well aware of what we here in the English department and at the university mean by the word plagiarism, as it could affect not only your grade on a given assignment but also in a class.  At worse, plagiarizing could lead to academic dismissal, and because no one wants to be expelled for plagiarizing, we should spend a few moments talking about it, just to make sure that we all understand one another.
 

What is Plagiarism and how do we know when we do it?
In the broadest sense, plagiarism occurs whenever an author presents words or ideas as his or her own when, in fact, they were someone else's.  More specifically, if you copy someone's paper, you have plagiarized.  If you buy, trade for, or steal someone's paper, you have plagiarized.  If you are walking down the street, find a really good essay, and decide to turn it in, you have plagiarized.

So far most of these examples should seem fairly straightforward.
As you learned back in kindergarten, stealing isn't nice, and you shouldn't do it.

But there's more to plagiarism that these fairly obvious "stealing/borrowing" examples.  Sometimes, we don't think we're really plagiarizing, but in fact we are.  For example, say you have been researching for a while now, and you have a pile of note cards with random quotations on them.  There is one card with a really good idea, but you're not sure if you copied it from your source or if you came up with the idea yourself.
If you put it in your paper, is it plagiarism?
Well, if it turns out that it did, indeed, come directly from the book, article, or web site that you were working with, then yes, it's plagiarism. If you're not sure, go back and double check.  This is why taking thorough, copious notes is a good thing.

But if it was a summary in your own words of what someone else wrote, is it still plagiarism?
Well, actually, technically, yes.  If you paraphrase, you must give credit to the author.  You need to make sure you have the right citation information; otherwise, someone may come back and accuse you of plagiarism.

Here's another example:
You find a web site with wonderful information, and you highlight what you want, copy, and paste it into your essay.  You forget to cite where you got it.  Or perhaps you weren't sure how to do it right, so you just left it.  Is this plagiarism?
Yes, and it's quite easy for teachers to find. If you found it on the web, more than likely a careful teacher could plug in the "suspect" sentence and find the same article you found. Once again, you must cite your sources.
When in doubt, cite.
If you don't know how to do it correctly, look it up, ask your teacher, go to the writing center, do anything, just don't leave it without any citation whatsoever.

Must you ALWAYS cite?
Actually, there is one exception to the rule: "Common Knowledge."  If the fact or idea you are using is common knowledge, you don't have to have a source for it.
But what is considered common knowledge?
I'm sure there are some other guidelines for discerning whether or not something can be considered common knowledge, but one of the easiest ones I was taught is the following:
If the idea or fact (a) appears in a general source, like an encyclopedia or dictionary, (b) is repeated by over three different sources, or (c) is claimed to be "common knowledge" by more than one author who is in the field and knowledgeable, it can be considered common knowledge.
Still, if you have any doubt, go ahead and cite where it was mentioned.  It's best to err on the side of citing too much than not enough.

Besides not failing or being expelled, is there any other reason why I should care?
First of all, I really really hope that expulsion and or failing would be reason enough, but even if these weren't concerns, there are other reasons why we cite things.

One reason is that you have done a great deal of work researching and preparing your paper.  You have come up with the ideas, gone to the library or internet, outlined, drafted, and so on.  Give yourself some credit.  Let your reader know that you have done the work. Dropping names works well not only in Hollywood but also in essay writing.  It adds to your authority and to your creditability.  Do it.

Another reason is that the source you got your information from may have been wrong.  With any luck you would have caught the discrepancy, but in case you didn't, having the name of the person who gave the faulty fact will protect you from being blamed.  Or at least you can share the blame with the person who first wrote it.

Most importantly, you need to keep in mind that your teacher--even if you don't see it at first--wants YOU to do well.  He or she wants you to write about your ideas, not someone else's.  Regardless of what grade you get, if you've done the work yourself, labored through researching, suffered through the writing process, toiled through revisions, and produced your own work, you can be proud.  Having something of your own, an original work in which the main ideas are yours, should be reward enough.  Grades are important, no doubt.  But ultimately, being able to produce your own work, to take pride in it, and to have a sense of personal accomplishment are more important and cannot be found in plagiarism.

Aren't you glad you do your own work?