Plagiarism Policy

A NOTE ON PLAGIARISM: DON'T DO IT!

Plagiarism: 1. Stealing somebody's work or idea: the process of copying another person's

idea or written work and claiming it as original 2. Something plagiarized: a piece of written work or an idea that somebody has copied and claimed as his or her own (Source: http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/plagiarism.html )

If you aren't using your own words and you don't give credit to the source, it's plagiarizing.

Every semester for the last few years, I have caught several people buying or cutting and pasting their papers from the internet. It isn't that hard to catch. If you use fancy language and jargon taken from the internet, it will stand out like a sore thumb. If one part of your paper is written in a different style, it looks suspicious. It may sound good to you, but your professor will know that those aren't your words. It's very easy for a professor to google phrases and sentences from your paper and come up with their source. Material stolen from printed sources can be found. Even purchased papers can be traced. Once your professor documents the source from which you've taken your paper, you don't have a leg to stand on. If your professor asks you to talk about your paper and you can't, that's a dead giveaway too.

If I catch you plagiarizing, I will take the matter to the Dean and to the Division Chair. If you are caught plagiarizing, you fail the course. At some schools, a single instance of plagiarism can get you expelled.

The paper assignments for this course are not research papers. The only sources you should be using are the articles, your lecture notes and text, and your own opinions. You may quote from the articles, but you must use quotation marks and cite the source. Close paraphrases of the articles are not acceptable. Your papers must be in your own words.