Plagiarism & Integrity

Plagiarism and integrity cannot coexist.

Plagiarism occurs when a person uses someone's ideas or words and claims them as original work. Plagiarism is never acceptable and degrades a person's integrity in the eyes of others.

Function

Plagiarism and a high level of integrity are mutually exclusive. Integrity means showing respect to others and displaying complete honesty. Since plagiarism involves stealing and lying, it works against integrity.

Effects

In education, a student that plagiarizes makes it hard for teachers to review and ascertain his progress. In college, plagiarism violates academic integrity policies and may result in expulsion or a failing grade for the assignment or in the class. Profiting off of plagiarism typically leads to a lawsuit by the victim.

Misconceptions

Plagiarizing a work does not just mean copying words verbatim, but also ideas. A person violates rules of integrity when they rephrase a work and use the same syntax and structure. In addition, you can plagiarize when reusing several short phrases from a text.

Prevention

Plagiarism violates academic integrity even when accidental. You should review the proper rules on source citation. Northwestern University, for example, has a free guide to citations online.

Solution

In order to prevent plagiarism and uphold academic integrity, you always cite any resources or references used in a paper. In addition, you need to clearly denote what parts are from another work.

References

• Victoria University of Wellington: Integrity and Plagiarism
• University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign: Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
• Princeton University: Examples of Plagiarism

Resources

• Northwestern University: How To Avoid Plagiarism