Faculty

Plagiarism – What students need to know

Plagiarism is intentionally, knowingly or carelessly presenting the work of another as one’s own (i.e. without proper acknowledgement of the source) [Undergraduate catalog p 274; graduate catalog p 25]. Taking someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own is a kind of stealing. This form of academic misconduct is specifically addressed in WMU’s Student Code and there can be serious penalties for it.

For more information, read:

The Office of Student Conduct's "Proscribed Conduct"
Turnitin's "What is plagiarism?"

Be aware that WMU faculty have access to plagiarism prevention software that detects plagiarism in papers!

Types of Plagiarism

Copying an entire paper - from someone who took the class before, or from an online source
Taking only a sentence or paragraph without citing it
Using an idea from someone else without giving the original author credit
Using substantial portions of a paper you’ve already submitted for credit without prior authorization from the instructor (multiple submission)

Why it is Important

College is all about ideas and knowledge. Professors set assignments to help you develop knowledge, skills, and problem-solving abilities. These skills are valued in the workplace and society but they take practice. If you simply copy others’ work you are cheating yourself of the education you are paying for and you won’t gain the skill set that future employers will need. Academic honesty is important because it enables us to fulfill our potential, learn effectively with and from one another, acquire specialized knowledge and skills, become informed, responsible and creative thinkers and have pride in ourselves and our institution’s standing.

Using the Work of Others Correctly

Usually when we are writing a paper we build our work on ideas and evidence that others have already presented, in books, articles, on the Web, or orally. It’s perfectly OK to use existing material, in fact even original work is usually built on a foundation of existing ideas. This actually strengthens your product. However, the important thing to remember is credit your sources. It’s perfectly acceptable to use others’ work but we must always cite where information and ideas came from.

There are two major ways we generally use others’ work:

We may want to use exactly the same words the original author used to convey their idea. In that case we must present those words in quotation marks and credit the author. For more information, read Turnitin's "What is citation?".
We may just use someone else’s idea and explain it in our own words (paraphrase). In this case after we have paraphrased the concept we still need to give the original author the credit for having had the idea. For more information, read Purdue Online Writing Lab's "Paraphrase: Write it in Your Own Words".

How to Avoid Accidental Plagiarism

Now that it is so easy to copy and paste electronic text you need to be doubly vigilant about making sure you attribute any copied passages to the original authors.

The following tips help avoid accidental plagiarism:

If you copy something verbatim (including copy and paste of online text) highlight it, or put it in quotes, even in your notes, so you remember these are not your own words.
Get into the habit of including complete citation information when taking notes from a source.

Excellent details on planning and writing your paper are available within the "tips" section of Turnitin's "Research Resources".

If you are Concerned that Too Much of your Paper is the Work of Others

Open a blank page and try and write down what you are trying to convey without looking at your notes. You will still need to credit the original author with the idea, but the words you use will be your own. It’s usually when you are struggling to find just the right words that you start to develop your own angle on the issue.
You may not have completed the final stage of the project. Most professors want you to show them that you have read and understood what has been published about your topic. Then they want you to comment on what you think, in light of all that you’ve found. Often students forget about this last part, especially if they’ve been copying and pasting so much that they haven’t really been thinking much at all, but this is often the part that the professor is most interested to read.

Plagiarism tutorials

To learn more about plagiarism see:

WMU Library's "Searchpath: Module 6: Citing Sources"
Arcadia University in Nova Scotia's "You Quote It, You Note It!"

Additional information regarding citation, research tips, and writing guides: