What is plagiarism?

During your time at University you will be expected to write reports, essays and dissertations on topics related to your subject. As part of doing this you will be expected to find, read and absorb existing information from lecture notes, books, journal articles, conference papers, interviews or other academic publications. When you reach the point of putting your newly discovered or developed knowledge and ideas down into written words you can use this existing information to support and show how you developed your knowledge. There are tools available to help you develop your understanding of this concept.

When you are using someone else's words or information in order to develop, support or illustrate your own ideas and opinions it is very important that you make it clear which parts of your assignment are your own and which are not. The web page on quoting, referencing and citing will demonstrate different ways of doing this. If you do not acknowledge others' work properly you may be accused of something known in the UK as plagiarism. In its most stark definition this is seen as the theft of knowledge, information and ideas developed and produced by other people and can be illustrated by the definition of plagiarism from the Oxford English Dictionary Online (20/10/2011), "The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft"

The definition of plagiarism from the University statement on plagiarism within the University Calendar (online version Oct 2011) is, '31.2 Plagiarism is defined as the submission or presentation of work, in any form, which is not one's own, without acknowledgement of the sources. Plagiarism includes inappropriate collaboration with others. Special cases of plagiarism can arise from a student using his or her own previous work (termed auto-plagiarism or self-plagiarism). Auto-plagiarism includes using work that has already been submitted for assessment at this University or for any other academic award.
31.3 The incorporation of material without formal and proper acknowledgement (even with no deliberate intent to cheat) can constitute plagiarism.'

Clearly this is a serious matter but it is relatively easy to avoid plagiarising simply by understanding the basic concept and acknowledging when you have used other peoples' work to develop your own ideas, arguments or new knowledge. In the sections below you will find

• online tools to help you develop and test your understanding of the concept of plagiarism developed by the School of Education within the Indiana University Bloomington
• guidance on the practicalities of avoiding plagiarism within the section on quoting, citing and referencing

You may also have been given the option to use the Turnitin software. This will also help you develop your understanding of the concept of plagiarism. Being able to submit your work to the software in draft form and then being able to review your work before final submission to the school will give you the chance to see whether you need to correct your quotes and citations and whether you might be seen as paraphrasing rather than using your own, original language. A separate web page on how to use this software is available.

Bibliography 

plagiarise. 2010. In Oxford English Dictionary Online Retrieved Oct 20th 2011, from http://www.oed.com/

University of Glasgow Senate Office (2011/12) University of Glasgow Calendar 2011/12. Glasgow. Available from: http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/senateoffice/calendar/calendar2011-12/