What is Plagiarism and Why is it Important?
In college courses, we are continually engaged with other people’s ideas: we read them in texts, hear them in lecture, discuss them in class, and incorporate them into our own writing. As a result, it is very important that we give credit where it is due. Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information. How Can Students Avoid Plagiarism? To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use • another person’s idea, opinion, or theory; • any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings–any pieces of information–that are not common knowledge; • quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or • paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words. To help you recognize what plagiarism looks like and what strategies you can use to avoid it, scroll down to the appropriate topic. How to Recognize Unacceptable and Acceptable Paraphrases • An Unacceptable Paraphrase • An Acceptable Paraphrase • Another Acceptable Paraph
