Plagiarism

Defining Plagiarism: Keynotes from “Council of Writing Program Administrators”

Note: This is a key notes taken from article "Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices", Council of Writing Program Administrators, January 2003.

Definition: In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source. It also applies to texts published in print or on-line, to manuscripts, and to the work of other student writers.

There is a need to differentiate between plagiarism VS misuse of sources

What is not considered as plagiarism

“A student who attempts (even if clumsily) to identify and credit his or her source, but who misuses a specific citation format or incorrectly uses quotation marks or other forms of identifying material taken from other sources, has not plagiarized. Instead, such a student should be considered to have failed to cite and document sources appropriately.”