Definition of Plagiarism adopted by the Department of History at Salem State College (plagiarized from somewhere else)

 

PLAGIARISM

The presentation of the work of another as though it were your own constitutes plagiarism. Since the penalty for plagiarism is usually an "F" for the course and sometimes expulsion from the University, the following examples of two different kinds of plagiarism and the rules for avoiding plagiarism are provided to make sure that every student understands what plagiarism is.

EXAMPLES OF PLAGIARISM

The source: R.R. Bolgar, The Classical Heritage and Its Beneficiaries (Cambridge, England, 1954), p. 17.

The period from the seventh to the fourth century B.C. saw the rise, the glory, and the political eclipse of the [Greek] city states. Unhampered by the rigours of climatic extremes, sheltered (at least during the critical hundred and twenty years that followed Salamis) from the interference of outside powers, and predisposed to enterprise by the rewards of an expanding economy, their citizens lived in a world whose problems were for once not beyond man's power to solve. They developed as children develop to whom a wise teacher sets tasks within their capacity, learnt to observe and to plan, to make use of facts and reason, to be self-reliant and persevering; for they had no need to be discouraged, as so many have been since the beginning of time, by habitually losing the fruits of their vigour and sagacity through the operation of agencies outside their control.

Example I: Plagiarized words. In the following example, verbatim quotations have been used without quotation marks. Even if a footnote refers to the source, the failure to make clear that the words are someone else's and not yours constitutes plagiarism.

Between 700 and 400 B.C. occurred the rise, the glory, and the political eclipse of the city-states. Unhampered by the rigors of climatic extremes and by the interference of outside powers, their citizens lived in a world whose problems were for once not beyond man's power to solve. Like children under a wise teacher, they learnt to observe and to plan, to make use of facts and reason, to be self-reliant and persevering; for they had no need to be discouraged, as so many have been since the beginning of time, by commonly losing the fruits of their vigour and sagacity through the operation of agencies outside their control.

Example II: Plagiarized organization. In the following example, most of the words have been changed but the organization of the source has been preserved. If you explicitly state in a footnote that you have taken the entire organization from Bolgar, you may receive a low grade for not providing your own, but if you do not indicate the source of the organization, you will be guilty of plagiarism.

Between 700 and 400 B.C., the Greek city-states rose to prominence. Blessed with good climate, preserved from outside interference (except that of the Persians), and encouraged to develop initiative by a contemporary business boom, the Greeks found that they were able to cope successfully with the problems of life. Under the tutelage of a benevolent environment, they learned to use their minds, their wills, and their strength in the pursuit of goals which were within their grasp. They did not have to face the experience, common up to that time, of having all their plans and all their efforts brought to naught by powers beyond their control.

RULES FOR AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

1.      Always make clear what is a verbatim (word-for-word) quotation and what is not.

2.      Whenever you take phrases, organization, unusual ideas, or unusual information from another author and incorporate them into your paper, you owe it to the author and to your reader to specify your source, either in the text itself or in a footnote. For rules of quoting and citing, see the MLA Style Sheet.

3.      Careless note-taking can result in accidental plagiarism; therefore, be especially careful to indicate in your notes what is a quotation and what is not. Otherwise you many inadvertently reproduce a quotation as your own work.

4.      In the end, the avoidance of plagiarism and the attainment of good scholarship do not depend simply on memorizing rules. The rules themselves depend on a simple, common sense appreciation of the position of your reader. A reader wants to know what supports and lies behind a writer's statement: Where do they come from? What backs them up? Why should the reader agree? Careful and appropriate acknowledgement of your sources is not just a way to avoid intellectual theft, but an extremely effective way to reveal the full quality of your actual work.