Answered By: Ken Fujiuchi
Last Updated: Jul 31, 2014     Views: 36

Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else's words or ideas as your own without giving credit to the source.  Plagiarism is cheating.  It is fine to quote someone or express ideas that are not your own.  The important thing to remember is that you must give credit to the source.  You have plagiarized when...

  • You turn in someone else's paper or essay as your own.
  • You copy sections from a journal article without properly citing the source.
  • You copy and paste sections from a web page into your paper without properly citing the source.     
  • You express the ideas of another author and pretend they are your own original ideas.                                                                                     

Plagiarism is stealing.  Here are ways to avoid it... 

  • Take accurate notes when you are doing research.
  • Write down the complete citation for each item you might use.  If you have made copies of journal articles, book chapters, or other materials, be sure that the author, title, subtitle, date, and all the other necessary citation information is on the photocopy.  If you aren't sure what information is needed for a citation, check the bibliographic style you will be using.
  • Follow a bibliographic style manual when you are writing your paper to properly credit your sources.
  • Buffalo State has purchased a campus-wide license to Turnitin.com, a web-based service that instructors and students may use to deter and detect plagiarism. Your instructor may utilize this service for source verification of student papers.