Avoiding Plagiarism: Home

What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else's words, art, data, or 
ideas as your own. Cutting and pasting is so easy that many people plagiarize without 
meaning to and sometimes even incorrectly citing things can lead to accidental 
plagiarism!
     You might be plagiarizing if you...

• Submit someone else's work as your own.
• Buy a paper or project from another student or a website.
• Copy and paste phrases, ideas, and sentences from a variety of sources to write a paper, discussion post, or project, especially if you don't properly credit them.
• Copy words, art, or data from someone else's work--again without properly crediting the original creator.
• Resubmit your own previous works as 'new' or original'
• Giving or receiving unauthorized assistance during homework, quizzes, tests, or examinations.

Tips on avoiding Plagiarism
Get into the habit of citing your sources properly- don't wait to format everything
correctly the night a paper is due otherwise you could make a mistake!

• Understand how paraphrasing works- changing out words doesn't make a
• sentence or idea your own. Proper paraphrasing requires that you cite the original source, not pass it off as your own.
• Make sure you have your citation style guide at the ready and if you have questions on citing, ask a writing center coach or your instructor.
• Don't assume what "common knowledge" is. Not everyone knows the ins and outs of nuclear physics!
• Ask the experts! If you aren’t sure something is cited correctly or needs to be cited, ask your instructor or someone at the University of Findlay Writing Center.
• When in doubt, cite, cite, cite!

Email:  library@findlay.edu
Phone:  (419) 434-4627