What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the act of taking another
person's writing, conversation, song, or even idea and passing it off as your
own. This includes information from web pages, books, songs, television shows,
email messages, interviews, articles, artworks or any other medium. Whenever
you paraphrase, summarize, or take words, phrases, or sentences from another
person's work, it is necessary to indicate the source of the
information within your paper using an internal citation. It is
not enough to just list the source in a bibliography at the end of your paper.
Failing to properly quote, cite or acknowledge someone else's words or ideas with
an internal citation is plagiarism.
Why is it important to know?
Simply
because it's theft. It's using someone's work and calling it your own. In
college it is the most serious charge that a professor can bring against a
student, and it is a dismissible offense. In the workplace an individual can be
fired and prosecuted.
How can Plagiarism affect us as a
student and others?
In the most basic terms, plagiarism
is illegal and unethical. Although copyright law is very complex and has
relatively limited application to your work, you could be sued by the author
for taking credit for their work if you copy enough of something and then try
to publish it. Of much greater relevance to your work at this university are
the professional standards that intellectuals have embraced. People may be
charged with plagiarism without breaking any law. They will not go to jail or
pay a fine, but in many cases their careers will be ruined because people will
no longer trust them and will not want to read what they write.
If you plagiarize as a student, you
not only risk your future reputation, but you undermine your own intellectual
growth. You are investing a lot of time and money in your college education.
This is your best opportunity to learn how to think critically and write
persuasively. When you copy someone else's work, you are throwing away this
opportunity. Students who commit an act of academic dishonesty also risk
sanctions by the university as outlined in the code of the student.
Types of Plagiarism?
There are different types of plagiarism based on the intensity of
plagiarism and some of them are as follows:
- Minimal Plagiarism: It is type of plagiarism, which is most common in the educational sector and in this plagiarism the person do plagiarism by substituting the synonyms and editing the original text.
- Substantial Plagiarism: Adding more details in the text and just changing the patterns of the text leads to substantial plagiarisms
- Complete plagiarism: Without making any change in the data and presenting it as your own is the complete plagiarism. On the other hand there are the some other types of plagiarism, which must be never forgotten while coming up with any written article or idea.
