Definition: “Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit.”
Explanation: to give appropriate credit for another person’s writing, the writing must be formatted with quotation marks to clearly show that it is not yours, and a citation to the source must be given. Only giving a citation without marking the other person’s writing with quotation marks is not sufficient.
If you are using data, a photograph, or a graphic created by another person, you must clearly state that fact, usually in the caption.
Plagiarism | Not Plagiarism |
|---|---|
Because an entrepreneur is willing to put his or her career and financial security on the line and take risks in the name of an idea, we need to support each other through success and failure in order to succeed (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurship). | Because an "entrepreneur is willing to put his or her career and financial security on the line and take risks in the name of an idea," we need to support each other through success and failure in order to succeed (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurship). |
In this example, it appears the ideas came from Wikipedia but were written in the author's own words. Because writing was actually copied, this is considered plagiarism — it failed to clearly show that some writing was not original. | In this example, quotation marks clearly show that writing was taken from Wikipedia and used directly. This is not plagiarism. |
