Plagiarism

Simply put, plagiarism is the act of taking someone else's work and representing it as though it were your own.

Many people may not consider plagiarism to be quite the same as walking into a store and taking something without paying, but it is still considered to be stealing. This is a very serious offense and is considered to be a breach of academic integrity codes, and an official accusation of plagiarism can follow your academic career for years. You will need to check with your own school to find out about what their specific penalties are, but they may include anything from receiving a failing grade on the paper in question, to receiving a failing grade in that course, to academic prohibition or expulsion.

In order to avoid plagiarism you must give appropriate credit whenever you:

Use another person's ideas, opinions, or theories
Use any facts, statistics, graphs, charts, or drawings that are not common knowledge and are not in the public domain
Use quotations from another person's spoken or written words
Use a paraphrase of another person's spoken or written words

Because of the ease with which information can be found and copied, especially on the internet, plagiarism is considered to be on the rise in grade schools, high schools, and colleges all across the country. Conversely, because of the sophistication of search engines and other software packages, plagiarism is also becoming easier to detect.

But if it is simply fear of getting caught that is stopping you from using someone else's work in your paper without giving them credit, then you are missing the point. Despite the assertions of people who say that "Information just wants to be free" there is a significant cost in the creation and distribution of information, and it is only fair that the author of that information be given his or her credit.

How would you feel if you wrote a short story or did some original research, and then learned that someone had copied your work and signed their name to it?

Examples of plagiarism:

Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It

For more information on plagiarism and how to combat it:

Plagiarism.org

Articles on plagiarism:

Plagiarism
This is a great collection of papers, articles and information on cheating and plagiarism issues as well as copyright and intellectual property concerns.