Lesson 6: Plagiarism

It may seem strange to have an entire lesson about plagiarism, but at WriteAtHome we occasionally encounter this issue. We know that most of you take pride in your work and have personal integrity; however, we want to make sure that each of you have a thorough understanding of what plagiarism is, how to avoid it, and WriteAtHome's policy regarding it. 

What It Is

According to Merriam-Webster, to plagiarize is to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source. 

Plagiarism at its core is a kind of fraud. While many people hesitate to classify plagiarism in such a harsh way, in actuality, stealing in any context is an unethical act. Passing off someone else's words as your own isn't like swiping expensive jewelry or shoplifting cool electronics. It's stealing intellectual property. Words. Ideas. Work done by someone else. And it's not right. 

What does plagiarism look like? The most obvious and dishonest kind of plagiarism is when students submit someone else's paper as their own. It might be a paper written by a sibling or a friend. Or it might be lifted from somewhere on the internet. It's cheating.

But some plagiarism isn't that obvious. Stealing just a paragraph or even a sentence from someone else without crediting them is plagiarism. Even if you change some of the words around. It's still plagiarism. 

In fact, you might even write completely original sentences, but if the idea you are expressing comes from someone else and you don't give them credit, you are guilty of plagiarism. 

Why do students plagiarize? Sometimes they are just looking for the easy way out. Why do the hard work of writing something original when you can use something you found in a Google search?

Other times, people plagiarize by accident. They just don't know any better. This is a common but avoidable error. So let's talk about how to avoid plagiarism, both intentional and unintentional, altogether. 

How to Avoid It

Avoiding intentional plagiarism is simple. Don't take the easy way out. Don't copy and paste. Don't just change a word here and there and think you've eliminated all plagiarism. Allow yourself to work through the writing process and develop your own ideas and sentences. 

Avoiding unintentional plagiarism is a little tougher, but it can be done. Never use someone else's words or ideas without giving them credit. Let's break this down a bit further and talk specifically about paraphrasing vs. quoting from a source.

Paraphrasing

Occasionally in WriteAtHome you will be asked to do some research for a paper. This is always the case with research papers.

When gathering information from different sources for these papers, be sure to use your own wording and sentence structure. Think about the information you want to use; look away from the source and talk out the information on your own. Forcing your brain to process the information without having it right in front of you will allow you to internalize the information in a way that will result in a product all your own. Even if the words are your own, still credit the source.  No quotation marks are needed unless you are using the other person's words.

(If your course requires research, MLA formatting will be addressed in your assignments.)

Quoting

If the original author of a source said something in a way that cannot be rephrased or is just too good to change, you must use quotation marks. Putting quotation marks around the exact words of someone else shows that you are not taking credit for that information. Along with the quotation marks, still use a citation to properly give credit. 

WriteAtHome Plagiarism Policy

Our writing coaches will do their very best to help students avoid plagiarism, especially the unintentional kind. However, if a student simply takes information from the internet and tries to pass it off as their own, the following policy will be followed.

• student will receive no feedback on that draft
• student will not be able to re-do that draft 
• student may submit original work on the next draft if there are others within the assignment
• rubric score may be low as a reflection of the plagiarism
• in addition, parents and/or teachers will be contacted

For more information on plagiarism and how to avoid it, here is a site with lots more: https://www.plagiarism.org/

Click here to go to Lesson 7: Safety