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Defining Plagiarism |
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The OLOLC Student Handbook defines
plagiarism as follows: "Plagiarism is submitting someone else's work for credit and utilizing their words, ideas or data without acknowledging the information through proper use of references." In other words, a person commits plagiarism if in a piece of writing they use material from another source without properly acknowledging it. The other source may be a book, article, or web site; in some cases it may even be a film, television show, email, letter, or even a conversation (in rare cases). The material from the other source may be specific wording, specific concepts, specific information, specific opinions, or some other specific material. |
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Plagiarism sometimes makes headlines. For
example, famous historian Stephen Ambrose's career was tarnished when
someone noticed that he had essentially quoted (or closely paraphrased)
from other historians without acknowledging it in one of his well-known
books. Others began to examine his other works, and found more examples
of improper quotation of unacknowledged sources. The passages in
question were relatively brief--a few sentences here and there--but a
distinguished scholar "stealing" a few sentences here and there was
considered shameful, or at least careless. Art Buchwald sued the makers
of the Eddie Murphy film Coming to America because the plot of
the film closely resembled a plot he had outlined years earlier in a
script proposal (and because the film makers did not pay Buchwald or
mention him in the film's credits). Former Beatle George Harrison lost a
"musical plagiarism" lawsuit after he used the melody from "She's So
Fine" as part of the instrumental introduction to his song "My Sweet
Lord."
Our concern is with plagiarism in the classroom. All of the following are examples of plagiarism:
There are penalties for plagiarizing. The maximum penalty is dismissal from the College. In general, the severity of the penalty matches the severity of the plagiarism. Obviously the last example is less egregious than the first. For more about the penalties for plagiarism, go here. What it boils down to is that a piece of writing turned in for a grade must belong completely to the writer: the writer planned the paper, drafted the paper, revised the paper, and edited the paper. Others (tutors, friends, family members) may have offered advice, pointed out errors (without correcting them for the writer), and made suggestions, but the writer did the actual writing (planning, drafting, revising, and editing). If there are any specific words, ideas, or information that comes from other sources, the writer must very clearly indicate what material came from which sources and whether the material is quoted or put into the writer's own words.
This raises two questions: Q: What if I research a topic about which I know nothing, learn a lot about the topic from ten different sources, then write a paper based on what I have learned? Wouldn't I have to acknowledge the source of each and every sentence of my paper? A: No. Notice that the word "specific" is italicized above ("If there are any specific words, ideas, or information that comes from other sources…"). A writer must acknowledge sources of specific material--specific (exact) wording, as in the case of quotes; specific (unique) ideas and opinions; specific (detailed) information; and any other specific contribution by anyone or anything. A writer does not have to acknowledge the source of her general knowledge about a topic. General knowledge is basic, well-known information. General knowledge often gets mentioned in several different sources, indicating that it is well-known and not unique to a certain source. A writer must decide for herself if material is general knowledge that needs no documenting, or something specific that must be documented in the paper. If you are not sure whether you need to document something, document it. That way you can be sure to avoid plagiarizing. Q: How do I "very clearly indicate what material came from which sources and whether the material is quoted or put into the writer's own words"? A: By using one of the systems of documentation described in The Writer's Harbrace Handbook (and elsewhere). The most common documentation styles for college papers are MLA and APA. At Our Lady of the Lake College, most courses use APA. For that reason, we'll use the APA style as our example. (The example is not meant to teach you how to use APA style--it's not that simple. To learn how to use APA style, refer to The Writer's Harbrace Handbook or another reference work.) In APA style documentation, as in MLA, there are two ways to document a source. In almost all cases, any use of specifics from another source is documented both ways. If a student quotes a sentence from a magazine article, for example, he must provide a parenthetical citation immediately after the quote: According to a recent article, "Plagiarism has become an epidemic at American college and universities" (Johnson, 2003, p. 14). The parenthetical citation signals that the words within quotation marks come from page 14 of a 2003 source by someone whose last name is Johnson. If readers desire more information about the source (perhaps to do their own research), they can turn to the references page at the end of the paper, where full information about every source is provided. Among the sources listed on the references page may be the following entry: Johnson, P. (2003, June). The plagiarism problem. Academic American, 12, 11-22. The references page gives readers all the information they need--the author's last name and first initial, the exact publication date, the title of the article, the name of the magazine, the volume number of the magazine, and the complete page numbers of the article. Plagiarism Home I Defining Plagiarism I Plagiarism Policies I Avoiding Plagiarism I Penalties for Plagiarism |
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