The Eagle Times

Plagiarism is defined by www.dictionary.reference.com as “the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.” Especially in recent years, since the Internet has made others’ work so easily accessible, plagiarism is very common among middle school, high school, and college campuses.

In fact, plagiarism is so serious, it is even punishable by U.S. federal law. Violating copyright laws, which outlaw the copying of another’s work without their expressed permission, can result in appearing in court.

According to www.plagiarism.com, the following are considered plagiarism: “turning in someone else’s work as your own; copying words or ideas from someone else without giving them credit; failing to put a quotation in quotation marks; giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation; changing words but copying sentence structure of a source without giving it credit; copying so many ideas or words from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not.”

Not all students plagiarize because they are lazy; many students are shocked to discover they are being punished for plagiarism. Not understanding how to correctly cite works can result in unintentional plagiarism. Becoming informed on how to properly paraphrase can help avoid this issue.

At St. John, plagiarism is punishable by a suspension and a 0 on the plagiarized assignment. The most frequently plagiarized assignments are summer reading assignments and class essays.

By Susie LeJeune