What it is:

Plagiarism is a serious problem throughout the academic community, not just an issue for college students. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, to plagiarize is "to use and pass off (the ideas or writings of another) as one's own." or "to appropriate for use as one's own passages or ideas from (another)" (1340. 4th Ed. 2000. NY: Houghton Mifflin). Plagiarism is theft of another's intellectual property, for which you can be legally charged. Plagiarism also creates an environment of mistrust that can have a chilling effect on the exchange of ideas and research.

Who Plagiarizes?

Some of the folks who have fallen into the plagiarism pit include: students, researchers, professors, and webmasters. There are some interesting similarities between the experiences of students and professors that may encourage plagiarism.

For Example:

Both students and faculty sometimes feel they are pressured to produce intellectual work without adequate time to do their best.

Both also compete for limited spaces—faculty for permanent positions, students for placement in programs of their choice. Pressure to produce and compete can increase the temptation to plagiarize.

It's important to recognize these pressures exist, but they never justify taking another's work and claiming it as your own.

[This tutorial was created and designed by Karen Starr, 2002. ravenbadger@gmail.com
Maintained by Trudi Jacobson. tjacobson@albany.edu]