Plagiarism is presenting another's ideas or words as one's own. It's called stealing, cheating and an academic sin. Whether it is intentional or not, using someone else's words in a paper is enough for a student to be expelled at any college or university. Cañada College's Academic Integrity Policy and the Student Conduct Code states "Any act which gains or is intended to gain an unfair academic advantage or which compromises the integrity of the academic standards of the college may be considered an act of academic dishonesty. Cheating and Plagiarism are violations of the Academic Integrity Policy and the Student Conduct Code and will result in appropriate disciplinary action."
But first, plagiarism has to be detected. The challenge for colleges has been keeping up with increasingly sophisticated methods of not writing one's papers. Plagiarism checkers like Turnitin are standard for instructors but students can also use plagiarism checkers to check their work before turning it in. Here are a few: Grammarly, EasyBib, and Chegg.
Plagiarize (and plagiarism) comes from the Latin plagiarius, "kidnapper." Derived from the Latin plaga (“a net used by hunters to catch game”), extended its meaning in Latin to include a person who stole the words, rather than the children, of another. When plagiarius first entered English in the form plagiary, it kept its original reference to kidnapping, a sense that is now quite obsolete." - Definition of plagiarism, “Dictionary.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/.2021
Oh, how the mighty are fallen. Nothing sells papers like reading about famous people caught plagiarising, as we read in these examples: great people who plagiarized, famous examples of plagiarism and the recent stories in the "Plagiarism" section of the NY Post.
More common than outright plagiarism, students "patch together" thoughts in a recognizable form of writing known as "patchwriting." Instead of synthesizing one's own thoughts and writing original sentences, pieces and phrases of others' work are pieced together. Read more in this Poynter Institute article, "'Patchwriting' is more common than plagiarism, just as dishonest."
Whether students mean to plagiarize or not, the consequences of an author's words or phrasing appearing in your work can mean a failing grade on your paper, a failing grade in a class or expulsion from college.
To avoid any of these, keep careful track of where you find your sources and quotes. Use index cards or a Google doc. It doesn't matter how you keep words and ideas next to the author's name, the title of the work and page numbers.
It is still plagiarism to copy a passage and change adjectives and verbs using synonyms. This type of plagiarism is called "synonymizing" or "text laundering." Of course, there is software available to "synonymize" a paper - for a fee. Here's an example Jonathan Bailey used on his website Plagiarism Today (November 2005):
Original quote: "To be, or not to be. That is the question." Hamlet, William Shakespeare. ca. 1600.
Synonymized quote: “To exist, or not to exist, that is the query." Bailey, Jonathan. “Synonymized Plagiarism: A New Threat.” Plagiarism Today, 5 Dec. 2005, www.plagiarismtoday.com/2005/12/05/
synonymized-plagiarism-a-new-threat/.
Plagiarism checkers are prepared to catch synonymizing also. Read this webpage on Plagiarismcheck.org to read the exhausting lengths some people will go to to avoid writing their original thoughts. Note that plagiarism checkers also read Quora posts giving students instructions on how to commit this type of plagiarism.
