Plagiarism
Department of English, The Ohio State University

The following statement is adapted from the definition of plagiarism as understood by the Department of English at The Ohio State University. This statement was developed to apply specifically to courses in first year English composition; it is referred to widely in cases involving charges of plagiarism throughout the University. Every student is responsible for reading and understanding this statement.

Because the purpose of University writing assignments is to improve your ability to express yourself in writing, your themes and exercises must be your own work. To submit to your instructor a paper that is not truly the product of your own mind and skill is to commit plagiarism. To put it bluntly, plagiarism is the act of stealing the ideas and/or the expression of another and representing them as your own. It is a form of cheating and a kind of academic misconduct which can incur severe penalties. It is important, therefore, that you understand what it consists of, so that you will not unwittingly jeopardize your college career.

Plagiarism can take several forms. The most obvious form is word-for-word copying of someone else’s work, in whole or in part, without acknowledgment, whether that work be a magazine article, a portion of a book, a newspaper piece, another student’s essay, or any other composition not you own. Any such verbatim use of another’s work must be acknowledged by (1) enclosing all such copied portions in quotation marks and by (2) giving the original source either in the body of your essay or in a footnote. As a general rule, you should make very little use of quoted matter in your themes, essays, or other written work.

A second form of plagiarism is the unacknowledged paraphrasing of the structure and language of another person’s work. Changing a few works of another’s composition, omitting a few sentences, or changing their order does not constitute original composition and therefore can be given no credit. If such borrowing or paraphrase is ever necessary, the source must be scrupulously indicated by footnotes.

Still another form of plagiarism is more difficult to define. It consists of writing a theme based solely on the ideas of another. Even though the language is not the same, if the thinking is clearly not your own, then you have committed plagiarism. If, for example, in writing a theme you reproduce the structure and progression of ideas in an essay you have read, or a speech you have heard, you are not engaging your own mind and experience enough to claim credit for writing your own composition.

How then, you may ask, can I be original? Am I to learn nothing from others? There are several answers to such questions.

Of course you have come to the University to learn, and this means acquiring ideas and exchanging opinions with others. But no idea is ever genuinely learned by copying it down in the phrasing of somebody else. Only when you have thought through an idea in terms of your own experience can you be said to have learned; and when you have done that, you can develop it on paper as the product of your own mind. It is your mind we are trying to train and evaluate. When, therefore, you are given a writing assignment, do not merely consult books or articles or friends’ themes in search of something to say. If an assignment baffles you, discuss it with your instructor. And if you are directed to use printed sources, in English or in other courses, consult your instructor about how to proceed. There is an art to taking notes for research; careless notetaking can lead to plagiarism.

Why be so concerned about plagiarism? Because it defeats the ends of education. If a student were given credit for work that is not his or her own, then those course grades would be meaningless.

That student’s college degree would become a mere sheet of paper and the integrity of the University would be undermined. To protect the conscientious student, therefore, and to guarantee the quality of an Ohio State education, the University assesses heavy penalties against those who plagiarize. By Faculty Rules, penalties for plagiarism range from an “E” grade in the course to dismissal from the University. If these penalties seem severe, remember that your integrity and the integrity of the University itself are at stake.

Finally, the University cannot prevent a student from plagiarizing, but it can make sure that every student knows what plagiarism is, what the penalties for it are, and in what jeopardy it places his or her future career. Hence this statement. Read it carefully. If you do not understand it fully, consult your instructor. AND IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS ABOUT THE ORIGINALITY OF A PAPER YOU HAVE WRITTEN, SEE YOUR INSTRUCTOR BEFORE YOU TURN IT IN.