Research Process: A Step-by-Step Guide: 5a. Plagiarism

Academic cheating is misrepresenting another person’s work as your own, compromising the security of the testing in any way, or allowing your work to be used in such a manner.

Students are expected to perform their own work. Where assignments require students to gather materials from outside sources, teachers will instruct students of any restrictions regarding the use of other material (plagiarism).

Any situation where a student is found to be cheating will result in no marks for that particular assignment. Cheating incidents may result in a failing grade for the course and possible disciplinary action. 

Even if you paraphrase or put something into your own words, you still need to cite the original source.

To avoid plagiarizing someone else words or ideas, make sure you:

• Paraphrase the original text into your own words. Be sure you are not just rearranging phrases or replacing a couple of words.
• Use quotation marks around text that has been taken directly from the original source.
• Cite every source of information you use to write your paper unless it is common knowledge or the results of your own research. This includes facts, figures, and statistics as well as opinions and arguments.

 pla·gia-rize verb

• to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
• to use (another's production) without crediting the source
• to commit literary theft
• to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source