Do-It-Yourself Library: Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is when you present someone else's work or ideas as your own. It can be accidental or intentional and is considered academic cheating.

Plagiarism is viewed as a serious form of academic misconduct, so it's essential to acknowledge and include citations for information taken from other authors or sources. 

Plagiarism can be:

• Copying someone's words or other creative work (like an image or video) without giving them credit
• Quoting someone's words incorrectly or out of context
• Using or repeating someone's ideas or concepts without giving them credit
• Misrepresenting someone's ideas or concepts
• Copying images or music without permission or without proper attribution
• Citing the wrong source or having incomplete or inaccurate citations
• Intentionally presenting someone else's work as your own 
• Failing to acknowledge the contribution of others in work produced collaboratively

This visual guide can help you avoid plagiarism:

For more on citing and using sources see Quoting and Paraphrasing, and Integrating Sources into your Paper.