This document discusses plagiarism, defining it as representing someone else's words or ideas as one's own without proper citation. It describes intentional plagiarism as knowingly acting unethically to pass off another's work as one's own, usually due to laziness or desperation. Unintentional plagiarism occurs through ignorance, such as failing to cite sources or use quotation marks. Both are considered plagiarism. The document provides examples and emphasizes the importance of citing sources to avoid plagiarism in academic work.

1. All About
Plagiarism
What It Is & How to Avoid It

2. What Is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the unethical practice of representing
someone else's words or ideas as if they were your own.
It can be intentional or it can be unintentional.
Both cases are plagiarism!

3. Intentional Plagiarism
Intentional plagiarism occurs when
someone knowingly acts unethically
in order to represent another writer’s
words or ideas as his or her own. It
is usually the result of laziness or
desperation.

4. Intentional Plagiarism
Examples:
•A student pays a friend to do her work.
•A student purchases a paper online and submits it as his own
work.
•A student, trying to start and finish a paper the night before it is
due, copies long sections from Wikipedia instead of writing her
own thoughts after becoming desperate to finish in time.
•A student knows he has to cite his sources but he doesn’t
remember what they were, so he doesn’t cite them.

5. Unintentional Plagiarism
Unintentional plagiarism occurs when
someone represents another writer’s words
or ideas as his or her own without intending
to behave unethically. It is usually the result
of ignorance.
But ignorance is no excuse. Unintentional
plagiarism is still plagiarism!

6. Unintentional Plagiarism
Examples:
•A student quotes a source in a paper but does not know how to
give credit to the writer of that source by properly citing it.
•A student directly quotes a source in a paper but forgets to put
the quoted words within quotation marks.
•A student paraphrases an idea she found in a book but does not
provide an explanation of where she found that idea.

7. Remember:
Plagiarism, like cheating on an exam, is
unethical.
Plagiarism is not tolerated in academic work.
Plagiarism is plagiarism, whether it is
intentional or not.

8. So… How Can I Avoid It?
Always put direct quotations (the actual words
used) in quotation marks and give the source in a
citation.
When paraphrasing (putting it in your own words),
make clear what you are paraphrasing and give the
source in a citation.
Write your own papers. Academic writing is not a
patchwork quilt of quoted sources.

9. So… How Can I Avoid It?
Learn what citation style your classes require
(usually APA, MLA or Turabian) and learn how to
create citations in this style. (More on this topic in
Part Four.)
When you are in doubt about whether a citation is
necessary, CITE. As the old saying goes, better safe
than sorry.
By giving credit to your sources and making clear
what is their work and what is yours, you will avoid
plagiarism.

10. More on Plagiarism
You'll learn more about plagiarism and proper source
citation in your writing classes. For now, you should study
the following helpful document produced by the Academic
Resource Center:
Avoiding Plagiarism (links to PDF file)
Also, read the section of your CBU Student Handbook on
the CBU Honor Code.

11. What is SafeAssign?
SafeAssign is a feature within Blackboard that helps
your professor detect plagiarism.

12. What Is SafeAssign?
SafeAssign is a feature within Blackboard that helps
your professor detect plagiarism. It works like this:
1. Your professor may designate some assignments as
"SafeAssignments." Probably, not all assignments will
be "SafeAssignments.
2. When you're ready, you will submit your
assignment. Typically, you can only submit once, but
this is up to your professor.
Continued...

13. What Is SafeAssign?
3. Once you've submitted your work, SafeAssign
compares it to a massive database, including the open
web and thousands of student papers.
4. When it has completed this comparison, it will return
to you and your professor a report detailing the results.
This report will be available in Blackboard 1-10
minutes after your submission.
To view a sample report, click here.

14. What Is SafeAssign?
The primary purpose of SafeAssign is to help your
professor detect unethical behavior, and the reports it
generates can also help you understand the importance
of properly citing your sources.
It's important to understand that a good SafeAssign
score does not necessarily mean that you have
successfully avoided plagiarism, and that a bad score
does not necessarily mean that you've plagiarized.