(The statement and examples which follow are those suggested by the Ad Hoc Committee on the Code of Academic Integrity at the College of Wooster, chaired by Professor Melcher Fobes, 1979-80. The Ad Hoc Committee gives credit to Professor John Gates, and the I. S. Guide for Urban Studies/Political Science written by Mark Pohlmann, and to faculty suggestions in response to the questionnaires distributed by the committee. The excerpts [A and B] reproduced below are taken from pp. R-8 through R-10 of the Report of the Committee, May 1980.)
A. An Explanation of the Nature of Plagiarism
1. Plagiarism is the representation of another person's words, ideas, or information as if they were one's own. You may use another person's words, ideas, or information, but to do so without acknowledgement constitutes plagiarism.
You may describe Einstein's theory of relativity, but if you present it as your theory you are guilty of plagiarism. You may summarize a Supreme Court opinion in your own words, but if you incorporate the language of the original, without indicating that you are doing so, you are guilty of plagiarism. You may get an idea while reading someone else's book or term paper, but unless you acknowledge the source, you are guilty of plagiarism. Copying from someone else's paper during an examination is a form of plagiarism. The submission of a term paper purchased from or prepared by someone else also constitutes plagiarism.
Acknowledgment should be made for theories, interpretation, data, experiments, explorations, literary or artistic works, musical works, inventions, illustrations, or assistance in carrying out a project.
2. Beliefs so widely held as to defy citation, or information (such as birth and death dates) obtainable from any of a number of authoritative sources, are considered 'common knowledge' and need not be cited. Also, phraseology in common use may be duplicated without acknowledgment. The following are examples of such phrases:
Knowledge is power (Bacon)
Iron Curtain (Churchill)
Military-Industrial Complex (Eisenhower)
Survival of the fittest (Spencer)
The shortest distance between two points (Euclid)
The best of all possible worlds (Voltaire, following Leibniz)
Eat, drink, and be merry (Ecclesiastes)
3. The absence of any discernible attempt to give credit to your source will be taken as 'prima facie' evidence of an intent to plagiarize. In other words, if you have made no attempt, however meager, to give credit to someone else, you have created a presumption of willful plagiarism, and it is up to you to demonstrate that you were not attempting to conceal or misrepresent the true authorship. (Consult your Code of Academic Integrity for details of the Judicial Procedure involved in a plagiarism case.)
4. It is always safer to acknowledge than not to acknowledge. Always supply a reference if you are in doubt; even a crude reference is better than none at all.
B. Specific Illustrations of the Principles in 1
(These illustrations are from those given out by a member of the faculty to his classes.)
Notice that quotation marks are necessary for any passage, or portion of a passage, that is quoted directly. The following material is meant to provide examples of plagiarism and ways of avoiding it:
In 1954, Percival Proctor Baxter, responsible for the creation of Baxter State Park in Maine, wrote in a letter:
"I want to provide for its future operation on a broad scale so that in the years to come, when I no longer am here, they will not say 'A dead man's hand blocks the way....'"
Even if the statement contained a footnote, it would be an act of plagiarism to write the following:
Baxter, in thinking about the par, wanted to provide for its future operation on a broad scale so that in years to come people would not say that a dead man's hand had blocked the way.1
Often one does not want to use a quotation, attempting to avoid that by paraphrasing. Paraphrasing, however, is difficult. It does not mean rearranging the words of the quotation. For example, the following arrangement would be plagiarism, even if accompanied by a footnote:
Baxter wanted to provide for the park's future on a broad scale, and he did not want anyone to say that his dead hand blocks the way when he was no longer here.2
The proper way to write the previous sentence would be:
Baxter wanted "to provide for [the park's] future... on a broad scale," and he did not want anyone to say that his "dead...hand blocks the way" when he was "no longer...here."3
The rearrangement of words from a quotation does not relieve one from the obligation of placing those words in quotation marks, even when some words have been omitted or when the author has substituted some new words for those in the source. A true paraphrase would read like this:
Baxter, in thinking about the park, did not want anyone to say that his acts had prevented reasonable development, and he hoped to see its operation continue under a comprehensive plan after his death.
C. Additional Information on Plagiarism and Acknowledgment of Sources
Other handbooks which provided useful information include Francis L. Fennell, Writing Now (Science Research Association, Inc., 1880), pp. 269-271 and Floyd C. Watkins, William B. Dillingham, and Edwin T. Martin, Practical English Handbook, 4th ed. (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974), pp. 277-279.