Plagiarism is the use of someone’s work without properly acknowledging it. Plagiarism can be defined as:
- turning in someone else's work as your own
- copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
- failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
- giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
- changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
- copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not
Plagiarism can take place through the use of both electronic and physical materials e.g.:
- books
- electronic journals
- issertations
- newspapers
- websites
- videos
- CDs
Avoiding plagiarism
Know how to Paraphrase
A paraphrase is a restatement in your own words of someone else's ideas and this still needs to be cited using the recommended referencing style.
Know how to Quote
When quoting or using the author’s words it is necessary to use inverted commas (“”) directly before and after the quoted text and properly acknowledge the source.
Consequences of plagiarism
Plagiarism is also regarded as a criminal offence which may lead to one being expelled from the institution or maybe requested to rewrite the work.