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research help: plagiarism
Plagiarism
"I found your speech to be good and original.
However, the part that was original was not good. And the part that
was good was not original."
-Samuel Johnson, to one of his less motivated students
What is plagiarism?
First and foremost, plagiarism is a crime. It is the theft
of intellectual property. Plagiarism can lead to legal action against
you or the College for copyright violations.
Plagiarism is defined as the use of another author's words, research,
or ideas without proper attribution and citation, whether such use
is intentional or unintentional.
Examples of plagiarism:
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Word-for-word copying from a source, without quotation marks
and without attribution and citation of the original source.
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Paraphrasing or summarizing a source in your own words, without
attribution or citation of the original source.
-
Use of any factual information (that is not considered common
knowledge), statistics, photographs, charts, etc. without attribution
and citation of the original source.
What is considered "common knowledge"?
"Common knowledge" may be defined as any factual information
that can be presumed to be known by most people with average education
- "George Washington was our first President", or which
can be found in multiple (more than 5 sources). Use the "look
it up" rule: if you need to look up factual information for
verification, it should not be considered common knowledge and should
be cited.
Why shouldn't I plagiarize?
-
You will get caught. There are multiple techniques and tools
available to your professors to detect plagiarism.
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It is unethical and dishonest.
-
It is a criminal act which can lead to legal action.
-
You will devalue your diploma if Hanover College develops a
reputation for academic dishonesty.
For more information
Hanover College Policy on Academic Dishonesty: http://www.hanover.edu/registrar/honest.htm
Indiana University Writing Center's excellent tutorial on avoiding
plagiarism:
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html
http://www.nwmissouri.edu/library/services/facplag.htm:
From the Northwest Missouri State University Library web site, provides
links for prevention strategies for faculty, tips on avoiding plagiarism
for students, and how to diagnose plagiarism if suspected.
http://www.web-miner.com/plagiarism:
A meta-site containing numerous links to online articles and other
plagiarism resources for instructors (for example, how to think
and talk about plagiarism in the classroom) and students (such as
avoiding plagiarism).
updated 7 August 2006
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