Plagiarism

After viewing the “Liberty University – InfoRM: Identifying Sources” and "Greenwood Resource Center – Avoiding Plagiarism" websites, what constitutes plagiarism and how will you incorporate your knowledge of plagiarism into your future assignments?

            Plagiarism can occur in many forms; written works, speeches, music, art, etc. (Heckler & Forde, 2015).  Acts of intentional plagiarism often occur when a person copies and pastes information directly from a website or uses direct quotes from sources without giving credit to the original author ("Greenwood Skills Center - Research Tutor," n.d.).  Cases of plagiarism can normally be spotted by professors when they are familiar with a particular student’s writing styles, when they don’t reflect the student’s ideas, but the source from which the information was taken.  While direct plagiarism is a direct violation of Liberty University’s policy, indirect plagiarism is of great concern to educators, and should be a concern for student’s as well ("Greenwood Skills Center - Research Tutor," n.d.). 

            Inadvertent plagiarism may occur when individuals are not familiar with the subjects being presented, challenging subjects, or when attempting to meet a last minute deadline because of procrastination or other causes ("Greenwood Skills Center - Research Tutor," n.d.).  Inadvertent plagiarism can be caused when reading material and transferring that information to your works from memory rather than referring to the source and double checking your work.  I have found myself doing this at times when reading multiple sources and typing what I believe to be my original thoughts, only to find out later that I’ve paraphrased or quoted a text almost verbatim.  Any time a source is used, especially when citing information that may not be common knowledge, proper citations should be used.  When conveying an author’s idea in a manner that would be best explained by using material directly from the text, one should always place the information in quotes and give a proper citation at the end ("Greenwood Skills Center - Research Tutor," n.d.).  Quoting the author is always the best way to avoid committing plagiarism, but too many quotes are no longer the writer’s original thoughts.  Conveying original thoughts involves summarizing the author’s material in your own language, without mentioning the entire passage ("Greenwood Skills Center - Research Tutor," n.d.).

            To avoid plagiarism, I have to be familiar with what constitutes plagiarism.  Studying material from different authors and sources allows me to become familiar with a topic and provide a point of view that is my own, rather than the author’s.  Liberty University uses the SafeAssign technology to help students protect themselves as well as the University against plagiarism.  There are also online plagiarism tools that can be used prior to submitting a work to SafeAssign for an additional layer of protection.  Sites such as Small Seo Tools, PlagTracker, and PlagScan are useful sites but it is always my responsibility to ensure I am not plagiarizing an author’s work.

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References

Greenwood Skills Center - Research Tutor. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://skillscenter.greenwood.com/tutors/tutor.aspx?tutor=0

Heckler, N. C., & Forde, D. R. (2015). The role of cultural values in plagiarism in higher education. Journal of Academic Ethics, 13, 61-75. doi:10.1007/s10805-014-9221-3