Introduction
Plagiarism is a big deal in higher education. But:
Plagiarism does not have to be a deep mystery or a guessing game—there are clear ways to identify and prevent it.
Plagiarism is not about what sources you can use—it’s about how you represent yourself.
What would people say about you if you made the following pronouncements?
It might seem harsh, but people would call you you a LIAR – because you claimed the work of others as your own.
Plagiarism is not just about using someone else’s work—it’s about pretending their words or ideas are your own.
It’s fraud.
Original Source:
New Foods for Polar Bears
For polar bears, variety is the key to survival. New research, based on observations of one polar bear population along the western Hudson Bay, shows that bears marooned on land might be able to stave off starvation by turning to terrestrial food sources like caribou, snow geese, and eggs.
Your paper:
Polar Bears Find New Food, by Shawn Smith
For polar bears, variety is the key to survival. New research, based on observations of one polar bear population along the western Hudson Bay, shows that bears marooned on land might be able to stave off starvation by turning to terrestrial food sources like caribou, snow geese, and eggs.
Problem:
The entire text is copied without crediting the source.
Original source:
New Foods for Polar Bears
For polar bears, variety is the key to survival. New research, based on observations of one polar bear population along the western Hudson Bay, shows that bears marooned on land might be able to stave off starvation by turning to terrestrial food sources like caribou, snow geese, and eggs.
Your paper:
Polar Bears Find New Food, by Shawn Smith
For polar bears, variety is the key to survival. New research, based on observations of one polar bear population along the western Hudson Bay, shows that bears marooned on land might be able to stave off starvation by turning to terrestrial food sources like caribou, snow geese, and eggs.
Problem:
Omits some of the source words and change others, but most of it is direct quotation without a citation.
Original source:
New Foods for Polar Bears
For polar bears, variety is the key to survival. New research, based on observations of one polar bear population along the western Hudson Bay, shows that bears marooned on land might be able to stave off starvation by turning to terrestrial food sources like caribou, snow geese, and eggs.
Your paper:
Polar Bears Find New Food, by Shawn Smith
Polar bears are not actually as endangered as we once thought.
Problem:
The idea comes from the original source, but there is no citation. (Plagiarism)
All of these examples have one thing in common:
It’s misrepresentation, like pretending you invented basketball.
The Rule:
If you make use of someone else’s words or unique ideas, you must, in a citation, state who the source was. And that source cannot be you.
Correct Example:
“Polar bears have become the wildlife icon for the impacts of climate change, with shrining sea ice in the Arctic forcing them to range far and wide in a sometimes fruitless search for food.” (Gormezano & Rockwell, 2016)
Correct Example:
Gormezano & Rockwell (2016) argue that, in absence of sufficient seals, polar bears are finding land animas as a source for food.
It’s unique if you can’t find it in two or more independent sources.
Not unique:
Polar bear populations are under stress.
Unique:
Gormezano & Rockwell have shown that polar bears are finding land animals to eat.
Avoid rewriting your source sentence by sentence—this often leaves too much of the original.
The original:
To argue that information literacy should have a higher place within academia is certainly not new, nor is the despair mainy information professionals feel about the disparity between the needs for an infomrationally literate populace and the amount of education in information use the are able to provide.
Over-Paraphrased Version (Plagiarism):
To say that information literacy should be higher in university circles is not new, and neither is the unhappiness many professionals of information have when they see the difference between the needs for an information literate population and the amount of training in information they can give.
Problem:
The sentence structure and wording are too similar to the original source. (Plagiarism)
Never let the reader believe that someone else’s words or unique ideas are your own.
A word to the wise: Cite your sources!
Land Acknowledgement
Trinity Western University's Langley campus is located on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Stó:lō people. We are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and learn on this land.
