What exactly is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is a serious breach of all university guidelines.
Definitions vary widely, but most revolve around one central theme - plagiarism is the copying from an unreferenced or unattributed source. 3 Harvard Professors were accused of 3 separate incidents of plagiarism in a span of less than a year, for allegedly copying the words of other academics verbatim (word for word) in books they had written.(1) So if so many Harvard Professors can get it wrong isn't everyone at risk? We believe that they are - it can be easier than you think to inadvertently plagiarise someone else's work. Many students are expelled because they inadvertently plagiarise work by failing to correctly reference quotes. Before we offer our own definition, it's useful to quote some attempts at defining plagiarism.
Harvard’s Writing With Sources Manual - which is handed out to all new Harvard students states - “passing off a source’s information, ideas, or words as your own by omitting to cite them; an act of lying, cheating, and stealing.”
The Oxford University Website - "Plagiarism is the copying or paraphrasing of other people’s work or ideas into your own work without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition. Collusion is another form of plagiarism involving the unauthorised collaboration of students (or others) in a piece of work.
Finally Josh Billings, humourist and lecturer had a rather more liberal view of plagiarism - "About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment."
Scan My Essay would define plagiarism as the following - "Plagiarism is when a writer either knowingly or unknowingly passes off another's work, thoughts or ideas as his own. The former - hard plagiarism - is easy to ascertain - copying verbatim, rewording, paraphrasing, or unattributing direct quotes, all satisfy this definition. The latter - soft plagiarism - the disguised plagiarising of ideas and thoughts - is more difficult to define. Learning from others constitutes the heart of academia. Thus in reality, almost all ideas will have at least their roots in the ideas of others. The key to uncloaking this grey area is the writer's emphasis on originality and creativity of thought. They must create work that forms, shapes and expresses their own ideas, however closely they may resemble others ideas they have absorbed, to whom credence for any inspiration, education, or enlightenment should be acknowledged and referenced whenever it occurs.
(1) The Harvard Crimson - http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=503493
"Prof Admits to Misusing Source - Tribe’s apology marks third instance of HLS citation woes in past year" Published On Monday, September 27, 2004 12:00 AM as visited Nov 27th 2006.
(2) http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/epsc/plagiarism/
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