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The Problem of Plagiarism
The word "plagiarism" comes from a Latin word meaning "kidnapper," because a plagiarist is one who makes off with another person's ideas. Whether intentional or unintentional, it is a breach of professional or academic trust, in which a person takes credit for someone else's work.Knowing how to plagiarize is an invaluable skill because it can
Seriously, though, if you know how to do it, you know how to avoid it. And you want to avoid it. The University of Toronto's position on plagiarism is clear. It looks like this:
- speed up your writing
- eliminate your grammar worries
- get you kicked out of some of the nicest schools in the country.
That word "knowingly" doesn't get you out of trouble because the university understands that as including "should have known." And any student who gets as far as university, should know. And yes, students do lose their degrees over plagiarism charges.
The Code of Behavior on Academic Matters (University of Toronto Governing Council Secretariat, 1991) reads: It shall be an offence for a student knowingly:
- to represent as one's own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work, i.e. to commit plagiarism;
- to submit, without the knowledge and approval of the instructor to whom it is submitted, any academic work for which credit has previously been obtained or is being sought in another course or program of study in the University or elsewhere;
- to submit any academic work containing a purported statement of fact or reference to a source which has been concocted; (B.1.d-f)
So how exactly do you do it? If you are like most students, it's what a priest might call a "sin of omission," that is, you do it by leaving something out, rather than by intentionally doing something.
Most often, the problem occurs when you do not include the citation in the text of your paper. Citation is covered on our Documenting Sources site. Citation comprises half of how you document your source. It is the half that is most troubling for students because it raises questions:
This last question lies at the heart of plagiarism. None of us wants to look stupid. The definition of plagiarism in the U of T code suggests how plagiarism makes us look stupid:
- what do I have to cite?
- when do I quote?
- how can I impress the TA or prof with my ideas if I have to keep telling where I got them?
Plagiarism is at once a perversion of originality and a denial of the interdependence and mutuality which are at the heart of scholarship itself, and hence of the academic experience. (Appendix A, 2.p)
Rather than being a pervert, understand this: using sources adds value. It gives ideas authority; it provides evidence. One of the major problems we see in Engineering papers is a failure to give evidence. Sources provide evidence. Part of how we look smart is by using sources correctly. We need to be able to decide which authors to use, how to work them into our writing, and when we absolutely have to quote. Also, and more importantly, your prof or TA will be more impressed by your work if you can synthesize several sources; that means, you draw conclusions and construct your own idea by putting the source together in a new or interesting way.If you're still looking for more on plagiarism, check out the University of Toronto Advice on Writing site, where you can find the useful document on How Not to Plagiarize. For a bigger picture see our site on Documenting sources. You might also be interested in playing around with our Plagiarism Self-Test, a kind of on-line quiz that helps you understand plagiarism better by looking at examples.
How Not to Plagiarize Documenting sources Plagiarism Self-Test
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