Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

What Academic Honesty is, why it matters, and how to build your own academic integrity

Definitions

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as using others’ original ideas in one’s written or spoken work without giving proper credit.

Further Definitions

What is an idea?

An idea can be:

  • Facts
  • Opinions
  • Quotations
  • Images
  • Statistics
  • Equations
  • Hypotheses
  • Theories

Plagiarism can occur in two ways: intentional and unintentional

A student may intentionally plagiarize in many ways, such as: 
  • Turning in someone else’s work as your own, including another student's work or work produced by an AI such as ChatGPT
  • Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
  • Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
  • Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
  • Paraphrasing too closely (changing just a few words) without citing the source
  • Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether giving credit or not
  • Submitting the same assignment for two different classes without both instructors’ permission
A student may unintentionally plagiarize when:

  • Trying in good faith to document your academic work, but failing to do so accurately and/or thoroughly

  • Some students arrive at college never having been taught how to cite sources properly.

Outside Websites

Using sites like Chegg or Course Hero to get or share answers or course materials is also considered plagiarism and academic dishonesty.

Academic Honesty

In academically honest writing or speaking, you must document sources of information whenever:

  • another person's exact words are quoted.
  • another person's idea, opinion, or theory is used through paraphrase.
  • facts, statistics, or other illustrative materials are borrowed.

In order to complete academically honest work, you need to: 

  • acknowledge all sources according to the method of citation preferred by the instructor.
  • write as much as possible from your own understanding of the materials and in your own voice.

In order to produce academically honest work, you will be able to:

  • ask an authority on the subject of the work - such as the instructor who assigned the work.
  • seek help from academic student services such as the library, writing center, math learning center, and/or tutoring center.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

Books in Holman Library

What is Plagiarism?

What Is Plagiarism?

Watch this quick 3-minute video to learn what plagiarism is and simple ways to avoid it. Use the chapter list below the video to jump to any section.

  • Definition
  • Consequences of Plagiarism
  • Types of Plagiarism
  • Verbatim Plagiarism
  • Patchwork Plagiarism
  • Paraphrasing Plagiarism
  • Global Plagiarism
  • Self Plagiarism

Why Cite Sources?

Why Cite Sources?

Avoid Plagiarizing: You must cite any direct quotation, summary, or paraphrase of any idea or fact from your research. Citing sources is giving credit to the original author and publication where you found the information. Not citing sources is plagiarism and you may be subject to academic discipline.

Lend Authority to Your Paper: By referencing the work of scholars, professionals, and individuals with lived experiences around a topic, you demonstrate that your own research is based on solid, reliable information and that you are capable of critical thinking by being able to synthesize that research into your own.

Provide a Path: By citing sources, you provide the information that readers of your essay or presentation need in order to locate the same sources that you did.

Acknowledge Other's Work: Part of your research is built upon the research of other people. In the scholarship tradition in the United States, it is considered respectful and fair to give them credit for their hard work (just as you might hope someone would give you credit if they were quoting your own work!)