What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism means claiming other's ideas as one's own. It means taking information or ideas from other writers and using them in one's own work without acknowledging the source appropriately.

Mostly the University students seem to have faced the issue of plagiarism as they use other's works without citing or acknowledging them either by intention or due to lack of knowledge on the importance of quoting or citing.

Since it is a serious academic offence/sin, each writer should attempt his/her best to avoid plagiarism. It is a form of intellectual dishonesty or theft.

The following ways of taking information from others would be considered plagiarism:

1.      Not providing reference when we have used other's ideas in our work.

2.      No use of quotation marks even if we provide the reference.

3.      Taking a few sentences or paragraphs from other's work without referencing.

The following ways would not be considered plagiarism:

1.      Use of commonly accepted ideas even without referencing.

2.      Presenting the results of our own work.

3.      Use of some vocabulary from the original or use of some new sentence structures different from the ones in the original texts.

4.      Using the summary substantially different from the original.

Source: Exposureacademy.blogspot.com