Understanding What Plagiarism Means

Ethical Writing

Students in higher education sometimes ask what exactly plagiarism is.  It's using someone else's words as your own, without saying where you got them from.

In the recent USA presidential elections, much has been made of a speech apparently plagiarised from one made years ago by Michelle Obama.  Look at the above definition of plagiarism. Play the YouTube clips.  Look at the definition again.

This is how it was reported in the Guardian.

Ask in the library if you'd like help with referencing in your written work.  There is nothing wrong with quoting an authority - you just need to cite their words properly.  (Preferably most of your writing is about what you think, so don't fill up your word allowance with too many quotes - only use quotes from other people to reinforce your arguments.)

Plagiarism is copying without citing.  It's not cool!

Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, or Simple Misunderstanding

An article in the Times Higher Education magazine suggests students don't always mean to plagiarise, but actually don't understand what counts as plagiarism.

Read "I'm no plagiarist, I moved a comma", by Elizabeth Gibney (THE 6 June 2013).

There's another Whittaker Live posting about academic integrity, which we posted on 20 May.  Read it here:-

Academic Integrity and Internet Searching

Academic Integrity and Internet Searching

Yesterday, 'Whittaker' found an interesting article online for his own research.   He didn't recognise the name of the place where the author was working.  All was well, though: it turned out to be a department in an American university - the name was just a bit unusual.  The author was bona fide, too; and finally, the article was indexed in RILM - so was likely to be trustworthy.

So, if you're researching a subject, here are two useful principles to guide you on your way:-

1. Check out the source of the information.  Is it likely to be reliable? 
2. Quote the source of the information, so people can see where you got it from!  All a question of academic integrity.

Postscript. Since posting this, 'Whittaker' notes a recent article in Times Higher Education, on this very subject.  Read it here:-

'I'm no plagiarist, I moved a comma'
By Elizabeth Gibney, THE, 6 June 2013.

Self-plagiarism

Sounds like some new kind of perversion, doesn't it? But basically, Pat Thomson writes about the perils of submitting substantially the same paper to two different journals.  And that's called self-plagiarism.

Dangerous, indeed.  Read on ...