Research Assistant: Avoid Plagiarism

What is plagiarism? Presenting someone else's ideas as your own, not giving credit to sources that you use in any type of written or oral assignment, and purchasing papers off the Web or having someone else write one for you is considered plagiarism. This is academic dishonesty and those who practice it are subject to expulsion from the school, as this is a violation of our Honor Code.

Why do some students plagiarize? Sometimes students do not realize that they have to give credit to a source when they summarize or paraphrase someone else's ideas. Or, they may be afraid that their own ideas are not worthy. Some students may procrastinate on an assignment and not have time to compose original ideas, being forced to cheat to get the assignment in on time. The subject matter of the assignment may be uninteresting and a student chooses to copy from someone else instead of learning it for himself. Occasionally, a student may lack integrity and behave dishonestly in various aspects of his or her life, including cheating on schoolwork. Whatever the reason, plagiarism is dishonest and must be avoided.

How can you avoid plagiarizing?

1. Set a timeline for completing assignments so that you have adequate time to complete research, process information, and present original thinking.
2. Give proper credit when you use ideas that you obtained from sources other than yourself, even when you summarize or paraphrase them in your own words. You will find citation guidelines on our website.
3. If you are unsure whether or not you may be plagiarizing, check this web site for examples.
4. If you don't understand an assignment, or just don't want to do it, talk to your teacher about it instead of cheating and copying from someone else.
5. Consider the disservice you are doing yourself by not learning from the body of knowledge or contributing original ideas to it.