Ethical Use of Information
What Is Plagiarism?
Why
Discuss Ethical Use | Academic
Integrity | Data
on Cheating
What Is Plagiarism
| How to Avoid Plagiarism
| Related Links
Why Worry About Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is an issue because:
- It has become prevalent in student work at an alarmingly increasing rate.
- It is against many institutions' honor codes, including The College of Wooster's Code of Academic Integrity in the Scot's Key.
- It may constitute a violation of U.S. copyright law.
- It is important that students graduate from college with a full understanding of plagiarism in the "real world."
What is Plagiarism?
Following are three definitions of the word plagiarism from well-known, recognizable reference sources.
Plagiarism -
"the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc.) of another." Quoted from the Web Dictionary: OED Online:Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, URL: http://dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl, accessed 8/15/2001.
"The act or an instance of copying or stealing another's words or ideas and attributing them as one's own." Quoted from a famous legal dictionary: Black, Henry Campbell. Black's Law Dictionary. 7th ed. Bryan A. Garner, Editor in Chief. St. Paul, MN: West Group, 1999.
"Plagiarism is THEFT of another person's writings or ideas. .... Plagiarism is not a legal term; however, it is often used in lawsuits. Courts recognize acts of plagiarism as violations of COPYRIGHT law, specifically as the theft of another creator's INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. Because copyright law allows a variety of creative works to be registered as the property of their owners, lawsuits alleging plagiarism can be based on the appropriation of any form of writing, music, and visual images." Quoted/excerpted from a longer entry for Plagiarism in the following layman's legal encyclopedia: West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1998.
NEXT: How to Avoid Plagiarism?
