The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines plagiarism as:
- stealing and passing off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own.
- using (another's production) without crediting the source.
- committing literary theft.
- presenting a new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source as one's own.
Plagiarism is using any work that is not authored by you without giving proper credit. Plagiarism is also claiming that another person's ideas, or the expression of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc.) are your own. You must always cite any information obtained from any source.
Plagiarism is...
- turning in someone else's work and claiming it as your own.
- copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit.
- failing to put a quotation in quotation marks (yes, this is plagiarism)
- 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.
Updated November 2015
