Plagiarism

What is Plagiarism? 

Plagiarism is the act of using someone else's words or ideas (also referred to as intellectual property) without giving them proper credit. This creates the impression, whether intentional or unintentional, that those words or ideas are your own. Plagiarism is academic dishonesty.

"Intellectual property" is the product of research and the expression of original thought. It is the backbone of academic work. To use that property without proper credit is a serious offense in both education and professional environments.

Types of Plagiarism

Intentional plagiarism is when you knowingly use someone's work and present it as your own. This type of plagiarism is found in three forms:

• Cheating - The most severe form of plagiarism. Includes purchasing term papers off of the internet, copying a friend's paper, and turning in a paper you wrote for another class.
• Non-attribution - Use exact phrases or passages from someone else's work without giving proper credit.
• Patch-writing - Rearranging a phrase or changing a couple of words in a phrase. 

Unintentional plagiarism is when you use someone else's work and present it as your own due to poor note-taking, source or quote gathering, and/or citing sources incorrectly, or generally do not understand the research process. 

Both types of plagiarism have consequences and not knowing is not an excuse for plagiarizing someone else's intellectual property. 

Consequences for Plagiarism at Southeast

On consequences, Dr. L. Randy Carter (personal communication, August 4, 2021), Associate Dean of Students at Southeast writes,

"Students who are suspected of plagiarism/cheating should expect to receive a zero (0) grade for that particular assignment, test, quiz, etc.  Depending on the points value, this zero could lead to a low or failing grade in the course.  Students may dispute this finding to the Chair of that department and then have a formal hearing (meeting) with the Chair.  If the Chair supports the decision of the faculty member, the student can expect to be placed on Disciplinary Probation. The Chair can also recommend additional or more serious sanctions (suspension, dismissal, or expulsion), including removal from an academic program depending on the nature of the incident and if this is a repeat offense.  Students need to make sure they are doing their own work at all times and make sure they know how to credit others (citations) when explaining their work/research.  See also: https://semo.edu/writing/quick_ref.html."

(Cambridge Educational, 2011)