Plagiarism

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is taking someone else’s ideas or written words and using them as your own.

• Plagiarism is illegal.
• Plagiarism can get a student expelled from college and some high schools.
• Plagiarism is stealing another person’s ideas and work.
• Plagiarism will give you a 0% on your research paper.

How do I keep myself from plagiarizing?

To avoid plagiarizing, always follow these steps:

1. Never use the computer to “cut and paste” someone else’s words into your document unless you use quotation marks around all of the words you have copied and tell who the original author was.  Even then, only use quotations rarely.
2. Read the section you are using for your research carefully.  You may need to read it more than once.
3. Use a dictionary to look up the meanings of words you don’t know.  Pick the definition that makes the most sense as part of the sentence or paragraph.  Write it down; you may need it again.
4. Think about the main idea.
5. Rewrite the section in your own words!  It may help to cover the author’s words and restate it aloud in your own way before you write your version of the information. You can even tape-record yourself and playback what you just said to compare it to the original, and to help you remember how you worded it as you write down your version of the information.
6. Look back to make sure that you have completely reworded the section, not just substituted a synonym here and there.  The sentence structure and vocabulary should be your own.
7. Always list the sources you used to get information for your paper.  Give at least the title and author.  If using the internet, give the name of the site and its URL.  (NOT just the search engine you used, such as Google or Yahoo, etc.) (*See MLA Style Guide for more information about citing your sources in a bibliography.)