What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the representation of another author’s language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one’s own original work. Plagiarism is considered a violation of academic integrity and a breach of journalistic ethics. It is subject to sanctions such as penalties, suspension, expulsion from institution or work, substantial fines and even imprisonment. Generally, plagiarism is not in itself a crime, but like counterfeiting fraud can be punished in a court for prejudices caused by copyright infringement, violation of moral rights, or torts. In academia and industry, it is a serious ethical offense.
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 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.
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.
Yet, plagiarism does occur and may likely continue to occur. Many famous icons have been proven to have plagiarized, either intentionally or accidentally. Helen Keller was accused of plagiarism during her school years, as was Martin Luther King, Jr., when a Boston University investigation revealed he had in fact plagiarized approximately one third of a chapter of his doctoral thesis.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Your similarity score shows you what percentage of your text is found within sources in the comparison database. For example, if your score is 15%, then 15% of the content you wrote is unoriginal, as it matches text in the database.
- Never copy from the source more than two words in a row.
- To decrease plagiarism, using citation will prevent you from getting copied text reports.
- Switch active voice to passive voice and vice versa.
- Use a plagiarism checker or paraphrasing service.
- Green: One word to 24% matching text
- Yellow: 25-49% matching text
- Orange: 50-74% matching text
- Red: 75-100% matching text
Plagiarism is considered a serious offense in academic and professional settings, and the consequences of plagiarism can be severe. Here are some of the potential consequences of plagiarism:
- Academic penalties: In an academic context, plagiarism can result in a range of penalties, from failing a course to being expelled from school or university. The severity of the penalty will depend on the severity of the offense and the policies of the institution.
- Legal consequences: In some cases, plagiarism may be considered a violation of copyright law and could result in legal action, including fines or even imprisonment.
- Damage to reputation: Plagiarism can have a significant impact on a person's reputation, both personally and professionally. In academic circles, for example, being caught plagiarizing can damage a student's reputation and make it difficult for them to gain future academic opportunities.
- Loss of trust: Plagiarism can lead to a loss of trust between the person who plagiarized and those who were affected by the plagiarism, such as professors, colleagues, or readers.
- Professional consequences: In professional settings, plagiarism can result in disciplinary action, loss of employment, or damage to a person's professional reputation.
Overall, the consequences of plagiarism can be serious and long-lasting, and it is important to take steps to avoid plagiarism and ensure that all work is original and properly cited.
Plagiarism is using someone else's work or ideas without giving them proper credit, while paraphrasing is restating someone else's ideas in your own words with proper citation. The key difference is that plagiarism lacks proper citation, while paraphrasing includes it.
However, if you do credit the original author correctly using an in-text citation or footnote citation and include the full source in the reference list, then you do not commit plagiarism.
In order to avoid plagiarism, you must always cite the source in the correct citation format; otherwise, you are presenting something as your own work, even though it’s not.
In most cases, it is not possible to plagiarize oneself. Plagiarism involves using someone else's work or ideas without giving proper credit, so it is not considered plagiarism if a person reuses their own work in a new context without proper citation.
However, there are some instances where self-plagiarism may occur, such as when a person submits the same work for credit in multiple classes or journals without acknowledging that it has been previously used. In such cases, it may be considered unethical or dishonest to reuse one's own work without proper citation or acknowledgement.
Overall, it is important to be aware of the ethical considerations of reusing one's own work and to ensure that proper citation and acknowledgement are given in all cases.
Plagiarism checker software can be used to check your text for plagiarism. This software compares your text with billions of webpages, books and articles.