[This document has been circulated through the courtesy of faculty members at Mercy College, who first generated it for use in their own institution, and have made it available for our information.

PLAGIARISM

To plagiarize is to present another person's words or ideas as if they were your own. Plagiarism is stealing. The word "plagiarize" comes from the Latin word for kidnapper and literary thief. Plagiarism is a serious offense that can be grounds for failure of a course or expulsion from college.

Plagiarism can be intentional, as when you deliberately incorporate the work of other people in your writing without mentioning and documenting the source. Plagiarism can also be unintentional--but no less serious an offense if you are unaware of what must be acknowledged and how to go about documenting it. All college students are expected to recognize plagiarism and know how to avoid it. If you are not absolutely clear about what is involved, take time now to learn the rules so that you never engage in plagiarism.

What do you not have to document? You are not expected to acknowledge information that is considered common knowledge--for example, that Columbus's ships landed in America in 1492 or that Einstein's theory of relativity is represented in the formula e=mc2. You might have to look up and remind yourself about the date on which the Titanic sank or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, but such material is common knowledge, nevertheless.

What should you document? You must acknowledge the source of any words you quote. Along with your documentation, you must always use quotation marks or, if the material is more than three lines, an indented format. In addition, you must acknowledge your source when you paraphrase or summarize someone else's ideas. Writing the words of others in your own words does not release you from the obligation to credit the material to its originator. When you write a paper that draws on outside sources, you are expected to use you own thinking to formulate the thesis and to organize your material. Although you may use other persons' words and thoughts in support of your thesis, they must be acknowledged as such.

Here is an example of plagiarism, as well as an example of correct acknowledgment.

This passage appears in Volume 1 of the Literary History of the United States:
"The major concerns of Dickinson's poetry early and late, her 'flood subjects,' may be defined as the seasons and nature, death and a problematic afterlife, the kinds and phases of love, and poetry as the divine art."
The following sentence, presented without documentation, constitutes plagiarism:
"The chief subjects of Emily Dickinson's poetry include nature and the seasons, death and the afterlife, the various types and stages of love, and poetry itself as a divine art."
But you may write the following with an accompanying note: "It has been suggested that the chief subjects of Emily Dickinson's poetry include nature, death, love, and poetry as a divine art."¹
¹. William M. Gibson and Stanley T. Williams, "Experiments in Poetry: Emily Dickinson and Sidney Lanier," in Literary History of the United States, ed. Robert E. Spiller et al., 4th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1974, I, p. 906.

This is the correct procedure for documentation and acknowledgment.

This material on plagiarism is a compilation from the following sources:

1. Lynn Quitman Troyka, Handbook for Writers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.

2. MLA Handbook. New York: MLA, 1977.

--M.J. Chase Mercy College