Plagiarism:
Stealing Others’ Ideas

Written by: Ccep J. Dew, West Coast Editor

 

Although plagiarism seems like an easy thing to avoid, it really is a complicated subject. A lot of people think that “plagiarism” means to “steal someone’s work” and it does; but, there are things that people do mistakenly that are actually considered plagiarism.

 

Wikipedia uses a 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary to define “plagiarism” as: “use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.” What this means is that if ideas or words that originally belonged to someone else are used by you and appear to be your original words or ideas, then you are guilty of plagiarism.

 

Let’s clear up some common misconceptions about plagiarism…

 

If I use someone else’s words, all I have to do is put it in quotes. Right?
Wrong. It is not enough to simply put the words in quotes. Oftentimes, on social networking sites such as Facebook, a person may put a quote as their status update and other people reply only to be told that the person did not make up the quote. It is important to include your source (where or who you got the quote from) whenever you are quoting someone else.

 

eXample:
“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (W. Shakespeare)

 

Because elementary-aged children may not understand the idea of plagiarism, it is overlook at this level and the focus is on primary research skills.

 

If I put the source, then I don’t need quotes. Right?
Wrong again. Simply putting the source does not cover you. And leaving out the quotes may, in fact, make your work more confusing for the reader because it credits your words to someone else. If you are using a direct quote (something that someone specifically said or wrote), then you must include quotation marks.

 

eXample:
All of my life, I have believed that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. (W. Shakespeare)
All of my life, I have believed “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (W. Shakespeare)

 

If putting the source at the end of my sentence looks dumb, can I just leave the source out?
No. you should reword your sentence to include the source, so it doesn’t look dumb to you.

 

eXample:
All of my life, I have believed in the words of William Shakespeare: “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

 

Well, what if I don’t want to use stupid quotation marks?
Then, you need to do eXtra work and paraphrase (taking a quote and putting it into your own words).

 

eXample:
All of my life, I have believed that a sweet smelling rose would be just as fragrant if it were called a daisy.

 

If ideas or words that originally belonged to someone else are used by you and appear to be your original words or ideas, then you are guilty of plagiarism.

 

But, what about the source?
Well, when you paraphrase in regular writing, such as poetry and letters, it is okay to leave out the source. However, with academic and professional writing (such as term papers and articles) it is usually best to include the source within the work or with a foot note.

 

eXample:

1 From William Shakespeare’s “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” in Romeo and Juliet.

 

What about in elementary school when teachers and parents told us to copy information from the dictionary and encyclopedia for home assignments? Was that plagiarism?
In my opinion, yes. However, because elementary-aged children may not understand the idea of plagiarism, it is overlook at this level and the focus is on primary research skills. As students advance in school from elementary to collegiate levels, plagiarism is eXplained and penalties for plagiarizing become more and more severe.

 

Is plagiarism illegal?
Not really, but it is frowned upon. In some cases, the person that you plagiarize may sue you by accusing you of copyright infringement (using someone else’s copyrighted material without their permission). Although it is not criminally illegal, being found guilty of plagiarism does have its downside. In the past, people who have been found guilty of plagiarism have been kicked out of school, stripped of their degrees, fired, or have decided to end their run for a political office.

 

The point is that it is important not to just copy and paste the work of others. Your creative mind is the best tool. If you do decide to include the work of others, make sure you take the time to properly quote them and include them as a source, just as I have included my Wikipedia source below. Happy writing!

 

 

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