Plagiarism is the act of mis-attribution, representing the writing of another writer as your own. Some students don't understand the importance of avoiding plagiarizism. Some students say, "I didn't know." Ignorance is not an excuse. When you write your literature papers, you must cite your sources. You must indicate when you've used the ideas from another writer. Before you plagiarize (even if you have an inkling you're stealing the ideas of another writer...) read this.
Understand What Plagiarism Is
Plagiarism is easy to understand. If you take excerpts of essays, books, and/or ideas from a book, website, or other source and claim them as your own--without proper attribution or permission--you are plagiarizing. If you publish a work that contains plagiarized ideas or stolen written material, and those ideas are copyrighted, you may also be guilty of copyright infringement.
Understand What a Paraphrase Is
If you're intending to paraphrase a source, you can't just move the words around to form a slightly different sentence. You have to make the writing your own. Say it in your own words. When you paraphrase, you're indicating that you can say it better or at least substantially different than the original writer. If that wasn't the case, you would just quote your source. Remember: Even though you are paraphrasing (stating the author's ideas in a new way), you still must cite your sources.
Understand What to Document
You may have seen a show on TV that discussed the literary topic you're discussing in your paper. Or, what about a lecture you attended? Perhaps you read about the concept on a website. The bottom line is: If you are writing about an idea or concept based on what you heard, read, overheard, saw (as in a diagram, picture, photo, illustration, chart, video, or movie), or in other ways experienced, you must indicate your source.
Understand Note-Taking and Sources
Even famous writers have been accused of plagiarism when their note-taking practices are faulty.
