Plagiarism is the misrepresentation of another person's ideas or work. This includes using another person's exact words without quotation marks and a citation, not citing paraphrased versions of another's work, and citing work incorrectly. Plagiarism extends from something as small as misquoting to something as large as turning in an assignment you did not do and pretending it is your work.

Plagiarism is often unintentional. There are students who may have not learned about appropriate citation methods in high school. Some students from other cultures are used to different rules about sharing information, and therefore do not realize they must carefully cite their research materials. Casey Keck's study on paraphrasing in university writing finds that “much of university students' apparent plagiarism reflects not an intention to deceive, but rather their developing competence in text-responsible writing” (262). Keck's statement indicates that some students need to practice summarizing and paraphrasing. Another way a student might accidentally plagiarize is by planning to insert citations after she is finished with her rough draft and overlooking a paraphrased passage and forgetting to cite it. It is important to note that here at N.C. State, the honor code does not distinguish between unintentional and deliberate plagiarism.

Plagiarism has serious consequences. You will receive no credit for your assignment, and you may fail the class. You can even be expelled from school. The effects of plagiarizing could also haunt you far into the future. Michael Harvey's site, “The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing,” relates the true story of a presidential candidate who was accused of using other people's material for his speeches, and not by hiring speechwriters. This led to an investigation of his performance in school, and it was discovered that he had plagiarized in law school. Harvey writes that plagiarism “creates paper-trail timebombs that can destroy a career you've spent decades building—especially today, when teachers routinely keep copies of papers and the Internet makes it a snap to compare texts and locate sources” ( http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/plagiarism.html ). Do not do it! You will get caught! Furthermore, think about your credibility. What if you write a paper and one of your sources turns out to be wrong? It is much better to be able to point out that you got that information somewhere else and that you are not the one who made the mistake.

Be sure to cite everything correctly, even in the early stages of your research. Label what you are paraphrasing and quoting when you are taking notes, as well as what ideas you are coming up with. This will prevent confusion later. Also, go ahead and put in your citations as you are composing your first draft. Make sure all quotes are completely accurate, and make sure your paraphrasing is not too close to the original version. You want to accurately convey the writer's meaning, but in your own words. Do not merely use a thesaurus to change some words in the quote. While expanding your vocabulary will greatly help you with paraphrasing, swapping out some words in the original author's text does not constitute paraphrasing. A good method of paraphrasing is to look away from the text and try to restate it yourself without the writer's words in front of you. Then, double check against the original to be sure you have thoroughly paraphrased. Take complicated passages one phrase or sentence at a time, then put them all together and read them out loud to make sure you are conveying the original meaning in a logical, coherent way. Common knowledge (George Washington was the first President of the United States, etc.) does not have to be cited, but if you are in doubt about what is common knowledge, ask your instructor. If there is any doubt, cite it. It is much better to be safe than sorry when plagiarism could be an issue.

Council of Writing Programs Administrators:
http://wpacouncil.org/positions/plagiarism.html

LOBO:
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=125

Purdue OWL:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/printable/589/

Harvey, Michael. The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing . 2003. Hackett Publishing. 11 December 2007. http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/plagiarism.html .

Keck, Casey. “The Use of Paraphrase in Summary Writing: A Comparison of L1 and L2 Writers.” Journal of Second Language Writing 15 (4): 261-78.