| | | 2.8 Plagiarism | Contents | Index |
The Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary[2] defines plagiarize as follows:
Plagiarize:When writing your reports it is certainly necessary to reference the work of others. It is also important to give credit. As you can see above, I used the dictionary, but there is no doubt about where I got the information. Most issues of plagiarism can be resolved simply by giving credit where credit is due.
The Internet with its search engines has made it both easier to plagiarize and to spot plagiarism. Locating and then copying from a web can take just a few seconds. Re-locating the same work takes, perhaps, even less time. In the past only a very well read individual could locate a plagiarized passage, today both Internet search engines and specific tools make it easy to check for plagiarized passages. Check out google print when you get a chance. Google Print is truly an amazing research tool.
Certainly use the Internet to help you research your topic, or whatever you are researching or writing about, but give credit where credit is due. If you use someone else's phrase, quote it and cite it. If you use an image or drawing in a paper, again, give credit where credit is due.
It is my understanding that seven (7) identical consecutive words in two different documents is usually considered to have been copied. At first glance this seems like it would be impossibly strict. It isn't. Any natural language has so many possible combinations of words that it simply doesn't happen very frequently by accident.
Please note that simply rewriting someone else's work is still plagiarism. It is just much harder to find.
In summary, do your own work. Certainly feel free to include someone else's work, but make sure that there is no doubt about where the material came from, what was used, and who created it.
| | | 2.8 Plagiarism | Contents | Index |