What is Plagiarism
- Read the following article: What is Plagiarism?
- Write a one page summary of what your read and learned from the article.
- Your paper should be written using the APA guidelines.
https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.amazonaws.com/5d431a8c824bd/933289?response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27What%2520is%2520plagiarism &response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200822T210000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PL5SJBSTP6%2F20200822%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=cb466a2ddfd4f46693391617b815a6b9718599c96d965a42db9ed87a8e784a1e
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism occurs where one person presents the words or ideas of another as his own, or
where others are allowed or encouraged to form this impression. Plagiarism typically but not
necessarily takes a written form. Plagiarism is a form of deception or cheating. At its worst, it
amounts to intellectual property theft. One who plagiarizes is living, immorally, off the
intellectual earnings of others.
There are, however, significantly different ‘grades’ of plagiarism, as identified below. Even so,
while clear enough in respect of the intentions of the plagiarizer, the different grades of
plagiarism are not necessarily easy to distinguish objectively, from the reader’s or examiner’s
point of view. Faced with a case of plagiarism, an institution may not find it easy or consider
itself obliged, to differentiate between one grade of plagiarism and another when penalizing
students.
Three grades of plagiarism
Grade A plagiarism occurs where an individual makes a premeditated and systematic attempt
to pass off the work of one or more others as his own, the plagiarizer taking care to disguise the
fact by suppressing all revealing references, by changing words here and there in order to
deflect suspicion, and so on. Paradoxically, this worst form of plagiarism can prove the most
difficult to detect.
Grade B plagiarism occurs where an individual in the course of writing an essay or dissertation
knowingly refrains from making clear, through the erratic or inconsistent use of recognized
conventions, the normal distinctions between such elements as paraphrase, quotation,
reference, and commentary. This kind of plagiarism tends to be naive, clumsy and transparent,
with the plagiarized elements often coming from the same sources which are in the same essay
properly referenced or quoted from, all of which makes it relatively easy for the plagiarism to
be identified. Whereas the Grade A plagiarizer is trying deviously to get ahead, the Grade B
plagiarizer is usually just hoping naively to get by.
Grade C plagiarism is plagiarism that is unintended or accidental. It occurs where through
laziness, disorganization or indifference an individual neglects to acknowledge the source of an
idea or quotation; or sticks too closely to the original wording when paraphrasing a source; or
innocently reproduces, as his own material, ideas or quotations which have been noted down or
copied out without their sources being recorded.
One variation on this form of plagiarism occurs where an individual makes excessive or
exclusive use of ideas or words from one particular source, even while fully acknowledging this
source in the notes and bibliography. Technically, journalism frequently involves elements of
grade B or grade C plagiarism, in so far as reporters and feature writers regularly copy or
summarize ideas and documents without bothering to make due acknowledgment.
Plagiarism and unpublished work
Plagiarism does not cease to be plagiarism if the words or ideas plagiarized are not actually in
published or permanent form; nor does the gravity of plagiarism vary with the quality of the
work plagiarized. Thus copying someone else’s essay is still plagiarism, and it is still plagiarism
even if the essay is a bad essay. Getting someone else to write an essay which one then presents
as one’s own is also plagiarism.
Plagiarism and permission
Nor is plagiarism mitigated by the fact that a person may for some reason give you permission
to reproduce or quote from his work (e.g. an essay) without acknowledgment, since the
intention remains that of passing off someone else’s work as your own. It is even possible to
plagiarize oneself, for example by presenting as a fresh piece of work (whether or not under a
new title) the whole or part of a piece of work already submitted to and marked by another
teacher.
Penalties for plagiarism
Theoretically one might propose that different grades of plagiarism deserve different grades of
penalty. Thus Grade A plagiarism should presumably be deemed serious enough (at least in the
case of pieces of written work constituting examinations) to warrant instant dismissal or
disqualification. Grade B plagiarism would require the disqualification or heavy penalizing of
the particular piece or pieces of work in question, perhaps with the threat of a tougher penalty
for any further plagiarism. Grade C plagiarism should probably remain a ‘domestic’ matter,
with individual teachers or tutors counseling students about their studying and writing
techniques.
It must be remembered, however, that an educational institution is perfectly within its rights to
treat plagiarism as an either/or phenomenon. The onus, therefore, must be on students making
sure that they avoid all grades of plagiarism, by keeping a proper record of their sources for
notes and quotations, and by acknowledging either within the text or in footnotes the
authorship of the ideas, quotations, and paraphrasing used in the essay or dissertation itself.
The key factor here is acknowledgment. Acknowledge your sources and you have nothing to
fear.
This document copyrighted by Peter Moore 2000
This document may be freely quoted from, reproduced and distributed, in either printed or electronic
format, provided due attribution of authorship is clearly visible on all copies.