Plagiarism - What it is and why you shouldn't do it
There is a word that may be new to some of those reading this document: "plagiarism". Plagiarism means taking someone else's work and passing it off as your own. It is something that your teacher in elementary school and high school may have put up with, or perhaps even encouraged, but in college, it is perhaps the only reason (apart from not doing any work, of course!) that someone might be likely to fail one of my classes. Plagiarism usually means automatic failure. Are you scared yet? You needn't be, provided you follow the guidelines for academic honesty given here and in the other linked documents.
Let's say that, in writing an essay about non-Christian sources of our knowledge about Jesus, you come across the following passage in John P. Meier's book, A Marginal Jew (volume 1):
Despite some feeble attempts to show that this text is a Christian interpolation in Tacitus, the passage is obviously genuine. Not only is it witnessed in all the manuscripts of the Annals, the very anti-Christian tone of the text makes Christian origin almost impossible.
That's it! The information you've been looking for! With excitement, you quickly add the following words to your essay:
In spite of some feeble attempts to show that this passage is a Christian insertion in Tacitus, it is obviously genuine. It it present in all the manuscripts of the Annals, and the very anti-Christian tone of the text makes Christian origin nearly impossible.
Congratulations! You've just committed plagiarism! You took the well-researched and carefully created words of a scholar and passed them off as your own. What should you have done? Your options would be among the following:
1) You could quote the passage verbatim and give credit where credit is do. For example:
As John P. Meier writes, "Despite some feeble attempts to show that this text is a Christian interpolation in Tacitus, the passage is obviously genuine. Not only is it witnessed in all the manuscripts of the Annals, the very anti-Christian tone of the text makes Christian origin almost impossible."1
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1 John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew. Vol.1, New York: Doubleday, 1991, p.90.
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2) You could put what Meier says in your own words, not merely changing a word here and there. If the substance of your thought is derived only from Meier, then you should still put a footnote to say "Thank you Dr. Meier because I wouldn't have thought of this without you!" For example:
While occasionally arguments have been put forward that the text of Tacitus' Annals has here been subjected to tampering and insertion by Christians, these arguments are unconvincing for a number of reasons. Above all else, the fact that this passage has a strong anti-Christian bias makes it seem very unlikely that it was written by a Christian.
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1 This point is also noted by John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew. Vol.1, New York: Doubleday, 1991, p.90.
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If you have any doubts about what honest academic writing should look like, then simply take a look at an academic book on your subject, and see what is footnoted and what isn't. If you are simply giving information that has become common knowledge and is mentioned in a lot of the books you have been reading, then it is OK not to footnote. But when you are citing a scholar or other author's opinion, then you must give credit where credit is due.
If you plagiarize, the chances are you will get caught. In almost any subject, the professor knows the books you are reading better than you do. If a particular paragraph in your essay sounds eloquent and well-argued while the rest of it hardly makes sense, the professor will not only notice immediately, but will probably have a good idea where the plagiarized material is taken from. The internet does make it easier to plagiarize - you can find relevant documents on-line and simply cut and paste into your essay. But the same internet also makes it infinitely easier to catch you. You may surf for hours to find material that you think you can cleverly cut and paste into your essays. However, finding your source based on your essay will only take seconds: I can simply go to Yahoo! or another search engine, type in a few words from your essay (and try a few synonyms if that doesn't work, in case you have tried to cover your tracks). Within 5 minutes, you will have been busted, and will have failed the course. It is for you to decide whether it is worth the risk.
What is the point of all this? Simply to make you aware that (1) plagiarism is not allowed and (2) if you do it you will almost certainly be caught, and (3) if you take the effort to hide your attempt at plagiarism well enough not to be caught, it would be easier to save time and effort by simply writing your work properly and honestly to begin with!
OTHER RELEVANT SITES AND DOCUMENTS ON PLAGIARISM AND CITING SOURCES:
Butler University Library's Plagiarism tutorial
IU site: “Plagiarism:What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It”
Citing Electronic Sources - MLA
Citing Internet & Other Electronic Resources
Hamilton Writing Center: Avoiding Plagiarism
Document from Northwestern on Plagiarism
WWW Virtual Library - Electronic References & Scholarly Citations
Citing Electronic Resources MLA Style
Guide to Citing Electronic & Print Publications
Chicago Manual of Style Form Guide (see also FAQ)
Citation Guides & Style Manuals