Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the practice of using someone else's work or ideas without giving them proper credit, often with the intent of passing it off as one's own. This can include, but is not limited to, copying and pasting text from a source without citation, paraphrasing someone else's work closely without giving credit, and using someone else's work in its entirety without permission or acknowledgement.

Definition

Plagiarism is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft." This definition encompasses a wide range of actions, from copying an entire article and claiming it as your own, to using someone else's ideas without citation, to closely paraphrasing the structure and content of someone else's work without giving credit.

Types of Plagiarism

There are several types of plagiarism, including:

• Complete Plagiarism: This is when a person takes a work that someone else has created and passes it off as their own.
• Partial Plagiarism: This is when a person takes parts of someone else's work and combines it with their own without giving proper credit.
• Lazy Plagiarism: This is when a person paraphrases someone else's work too closely, often changing only a few words or phrases.
• Accidental Plagiarism: This is when a person unintentionally includes someone else's work in their own without citation, often because they don't understand the rules of citation or they forget to include citations.

Consequences

The consequences of plagiarism can be severe. In academic settings, plagiarism can result in failure on an assignment, failure in a course, or even expulsion from a school or university. In professional settings, plagiarism can result in job loss, legal consequences, and damage to a person's reputation.

Prevention

Preventing plagiarism involves understanding what constitutes plagiarism and how to properly cite sources. This includes understanding how to paraphrase correctly, how to quote directly, and how to cite sources in the appropriate format.

See Also

• Academic dishonesty
• Copyright infringement
• Intellectual property

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  Screenshot of the Wikipedia page on the Trojan War
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  Plagiarized version of the Trojan War article
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  Signature from "The Art of Cookery" by Hannah Glasse, 1758
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  Diagram illustrating the concept of plagiarism
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  Van Gogh's interpretation of Hiroshige's work