Plagiarism is the unacknowledged borrowing of someone else’s work and is a serious violation of the rules of academic conduct. At Heidelberg, plagiarism is defined according to the standards set by each individual instructor. What follows is a general discussion of commonly held principles.

The three  most common types of plagiarism are:

• copying word-for-word material taken from a source (including submitting another person’s work as your own),
• paraphrasing (rewording) material taken from a source,
• borrowing facts or ideas from a source.

In this discussion, we'll deal with four truths about plagiarism:

• Plagiarism hurts everyone;
• Plagiarism is dangerous;
• Plagiarism takes many  forms;
• Plagiarism is easy to avoid.

You can avoid plagiarism by properly documenting your sources, including published sources, such as encyclopedias, books, articles, and illustrations; unpublished print sources, such as student papers, lab reports, correspondence, and presentation notes; computer-mediated sources, such as Web pages, CD-ROM reference works, Internet paper archives, and other on-line reference works; television and radio sources; and oral sources, such as lectures and interviews. Unless expressly informed otherwise by your instructor, assume that any source you quote, paraphrase, or borrow ideas from should be documented.

Plagiarism Hurts Everyone

A college degree is more than a piece of paper. When you graduate from Heidelberg, you will have completed four years of intensive study in your general education and major courses. Much of the work you will complete in those courses will involve writing; thinking and expressing yourself through writing is a significant aspect of a liberal arts education. These literacy skills will prove invaluable in your career and life after college.

Plagiarists bypass the learning process by cheating. Turning in someone else’s work as your own means you haven’t written anything, haven’t learned anything. Plagiarists leave college (assuming they avoid being caught, which is unlikely) without learning the literacy skills necessary to succeed in the job market. Once on the job, plagiarists find themselves unable to perform at the levels their employers expect.

Plagiarists lower the value of all Heidelberg degrees. Employers and graduate schools base much of their opinion about the worth of Heidelberg graduates on the reputation of the college. Plagiarists—because fail to learn how to write properly—weaken everyone else’s degrees when they reach the job market and show employers what they cannot do.

Plagiarism is Dangerous

Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty and, therefore, carries with it the full range of possible penalties, as set out in the “Campus Community Norms, Policies and Procedures” statement. Plagiarizing can result in the Vice President of Academic Affairs assigning any of the following:

• a grade of “F” or zero on the assignment,
• a lowered course grade,
• dismissal from the course with a grade of “F,”
• special research or service assignments appropriate to the case,
• notification of your parents,
• probation or even dismissal from college.

Plagiarism Takes Many Forms

The most obvious forms of plagiarism occur when students turn in someone else’s entire works as their own. You are plagiarizing if you:

• turn in another student’s paper, with or without that student’s permission;
• buy a paper from another student or from a vendor;
• pay someone to write a paper for you;
• copy all or part of a published piece of writing without proper documentation.

Plagiarism can also take place when students quote from other people’s writing without properly documenting the quoted material. You must indicate any word-for-word quotations of material with quotation marks.

In a 1989 study, Ima Pseudonym reveals iguanas to be responsible members of society: “Iguanas regularly associate with one another, often forming clubs. Iguanas have also been known to rescue motorists along deserted highways” (22).

Paraphrasing (putting someone’s ideas into your own words) is also considered plagiarism unless you document your source material. When paraphrasing, quote any unusual terminology or strings of more than three or four words coming from the original:

Anti-iguana sentiments ran highest during the "Green Scare" of the 1700s, when Europeans feared a “world-wide conspiracy of reptiles” attempting to create a socialist state to unite all countries of the world (Marx 342).

Even ideas, facts and statistics need to be documented to avoid plagiarism. The rule of thumb is to cite anything that would not be considered “common knowledge.” Note that definitions of common knowledge differ between disciplines and even between writing assignments, so be sure to ask your instructor if you have any questions about what to cite.

Plagiarism is Easy to Avoid

You can avoid plagiarism by properly documenting your sources. Quoting word for word, paraphrasing, and borrowing facts or ideas are three important scholarly activities. It is vital that you always document where those materials were obtained.

Different disciplines utilize various documentation styles (APA, MLA, Chicago Style, etc.). Always check with your instructor to find out which documentation style is appropriate for your discipline.

Regardless of the documentation style used, all papers utilizing outside source materials (books, articles, interviews, class lectures, television programs, CD-ROM encyclopedias, etc.) must indicate the bibliographic information for each source and exactly what material in the paper comes from each source (called the citation).

When in doubt about the originality or proper documentation of any portion of your work, ask your instructor.

Basically, your paper needs to have two types of information in order to properly document your sources.

First, you need the basic information about the article in question. You supply this information in a Works Cited page, which should come right after the last page of your paper.  The Works Cited page is similar to a Bibliography, the only difference being that works listed in the Works Cited page have been referred to in the text of the paper, while the same is not necessarily true of works in a bibliography.

Sample Works Cited Entry for an Article from an Anthology:

The second piece of information you need to supply for your reader is the actual citation within the body of your paper (the place where you refer to the work in question). It's important to cite your information correctly for two reasons:

• Your reader may want to find out more about your subject, and your citations will help her to locate the sources of your ideas, and
• correct citations will help your reader sort out what ideas are yours and what ideas come from others, thereby helping you to avoid problems with plagiarism.

Basically, you will need to provide a parenthetical citation within the body of your paper; this citation should provide the author's last name and the page range for the citation.

Sample Citation for a Paraphrase:

In fact, recent research shows that the majority of Iguanas are, indeed, friendly creatures (Bloom 99).

Sample Citation for a Quotation:

As one researcher has pointed out, "Extensive study of Iguanas in their natural habitat has revealed that these reptiles are, as a group, friendly animals" (Bloom 99).

The subtleties of citing are detailed in the handouts, available below.