Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a type of theft. It is presenting the words or ideas of someone else as your own without proper acknowledgment of the source.

When you quote people -- or even when you summarize or paraphrase information found in books, articles, or Web pages -- you must acknowledge the original author.

When you work on a research paper you will find supporting material for your paper from works by others. You will definitely want to use these sources to back up your own ideas. Just remember that you need to give those authors credit.

No matter how tempting or unintentional, it is plagiarism when you:

1. Buy or use a term paper written by someone else.
2. Cut and paste passages from the Web, a book, or an article and insert them into your paper without citing them.
3. Use the words or ideas of another person without citing them.
4. Paraphrase that person's words without citing them.