Resources on
Avoiding Plagiarism
Department of Political Science
Concordia University
I. Introduction: What is Plagiarism?
The University defines plagiarism as: "The presentation of the work of another
person, in whatever form, as one's own or without proper acknowledgment"
(Concordia Undergraduate
Calendar, section 17.10, article 19a).
The "work of another person" can mean:
- An entire work by an author;
- Ideas taken from a source;
- Exact words taken from a source--from just a few words
to entire passages;
- The organization or structure of a source’s explanation
or argument;
- Information that is not common knowledge taken from a
source.
You
may never submit an entire work written by someone else.
If you use any of the other items listed above, you must include proper
acknowledgement.
What is "proper acknowledgement?"
- When you use ideas or facts taken from a source, you
must include a citation.
- When you take the structure or organization of an
argument from a source, you must give credit to and cite the source for
the argument.
- When you use a source’s exact words, you must include
BOTH quotation marks around the entire quoted portion AND a citation.
Key
points:
- It’s still plagiarism even if you didn’t realize you
were plagiarizing, or didn’t mean to plagiarize. "I thought it was
OK," and "I didn’t mean to" are not acceptable
excuses.
- Even if you've done it before and not gotten in
trouble, it's still plagiarism. “I’ve always done it this way and it was
OK before,” is not an acceptable excuse.