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The purpose of this tutorial is to define plagiarism, explain the consequences of plagiarizing at Edison State College, teach students how to avoid plagiarizing, and identify helpful resources.

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What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is using another person’s ideas, research, or words without giving credit to that person. When you plagiarize, you are falsely claiming the work of another as your own. Plagiarism is theft, and as such, is a serious academic offense. If a student submits an assignment to a professor that includes someone else’s ideas or words without acknowledging the author/source, that student has committed plagiarism.

Below is a list of examples of plagiarism. This list is not exhaustive. If you are uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, ask your professor or a librarian for help.

• Buying a research paper, essay, or other work and submitting it as your own.
• Borrowing a research paper, essay, or other work from someone else and submitting it as your own.
• Allowing someone to write a research paper, essay, or other work for you and submitting it as your own.
• Downloading or buying a research paper, essay, or other work from the Internet and submitting it as your own.
• Submitting a research paper, essay, or other work that you already have submitted or plan to submit for another class. (This is called self plagiarism.)
• Copying information from the Internet, a printed source, or published work – including your course textbook – without citing the source.
• Quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing another person’s ideas, phrasing, or words without citing them.

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