Plagiarism
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism occurs when the words or ideas of another
person and presented as your own.
Is it serious?
Plagiarism is dishonest; it is illegal, and the college
takes infractions seriously. Students have been expelled from Clinton
Community College for plagiarizing.
Plagiarism and online courses
Students in online courses must be careful to avoid
copying words from a website and pasting them into their documents. Much of
the reading material in online courses comes from websites.
I use extremely sophisticated software which compares
your answers to virtually everything that has ever been published or submitted
by other students on the Internet. The software tells me which web site you
took the material from, and exactly which words were copied. It also shows me
the words highlighted in the original document side-by-side with your
document. If your words came from something that was submitted by another
student, it gives me the student name, the name of the course, the name of the
teacher or professor, and the name of the school or college.
Students must do two things to avoid plagiarism. They must 1) identify any
ideas or words that come from another source and 2) give the source of the
information or create a link to the information (for internet sources).
Suppose that a student copies the following from a source
and submits it word-for-word exactly as it was found in the source. The
student also listed a reference underneath the material.
Muscle cells with few
mitochondria don’t start consuming O2 until they are out of ATP
and ADP concentration is high.
Mader, Sylvia S. 2004. Human
Biology, 8th edition. McGraw Hill.
At first, this may not look like plagiarism because a
reference is listed. However, the student did not make clear that the
information was not his or her own.
Plagiarism could be avoided in this case by clearly
identifying the words or ideas that were borrowed. This can be done by wording
the information so that the reader knows what information comes from another
source.
According to Mader (2004),
muscle cells begin consuming oxygen when the concentration of ADP is high.
Mader, Sylvia S. 2004. Human
Biology, 8th edition. McGraw Hill.
In the example above, the
information borrowed (ideas or words) are identified and the source of the
information is given.
Course Policy on Using
Information from Other Sources
1. When citing published information, do
not copy word-for word. Do not
rely on the cleverness of another author to construct your sentences. Instead, you should
reword the quotation in your own words. Direct quotations (copying) may, however, be used if an
author said something that cannot be successfully reworded. In the
following example, the first sentence contains a direct quotation. The second
sentence has been paraphrased.
According to Mader (2004),
“muscle cells with few mitochondria don’t start consuming O2
until they are out of ATP and ADP concentration is high.”
2. All
borrowed information must be cited. Even though the words are changed, the source
of the material must still be listed. In a lab report, the following would be
included in the Literature Cited section:
Mader, Sylvia S. 2004. Human
Biology, 8th edition. McGraw Hill.
**Important: Be aware that while it is legal to
use direct quotations to identify copied information as shown above, they are not allowed
in this course. You must use your own words for all material submitted.
The last option shown above (rewording) is the only option available for
material submitted in this course.
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