Use Information Correctly
Avoiding Plagiarism
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own. It can include copying and pasting text from a website into a project you're working on, or taking an idea from a book without including a citation to give credit to the book's author. Plagiarism is common, and the Internet has made it even more common. However, if you are careful to cite your sources it's not too difficult to avoid plagiarism.
Example 1:
Sylvia works at the regional headquarters for a retail clothing chain. The company is planning to open a new store in Shelbyfield, and Sylvia is tasked with writing an article about Shelbyfield in the company newsletter. She finds a really good article online that talks about the history of Shelbyfield. Because she doesn't have much time to write her article, she copies several paragraphs and pastes them into it. She then changes a few words so it won't be an exact copy. When her coworkers read the company newsletter, they compliment Sylvia on her well-written article.
What's wrong with this situation?
Sylvia has taken credit for someone else's writing. Her coworkers had complimented her on work that she hadn't actually done, so her professional reputation is partly built on a lie! If someone finds out that she copied someone else's work, her reputation could be permanently damaged, and she may even get into trouble.
It's actually OK that she got information from a website. Sylvia's mistake was that she wasn't upfront about her source. She should have included a citation (a brief note saying where the information came from). Instead of changing a few words, she could have put the text in quotation marks to show that it came from another source. Or she could have completely reworked the town history to give it a different angle—while still including a citation.
Example 2:
Dave has a home improvement blog he updates in his free time. Sometimes he gets an idea from another website, and he writes a blog article based on it. Because he writes all of the text himself, he doesn't link to the site where he found the idea.
What's wrong with this situation?
Although Dave didn't copy the text itself, he copied the ideas from the other website. He should have included a link to the website so he's not taking credit for the idea. It's only fair to the other authors, and it also makes Dave's blog seem more professional.
