What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the act of using someone else's words, sentences, or ideas and passing them off as your own without giving credit to the original source. Giving credit to the original source is called citing. Failing to cite sources can be done accidentally or on purpose. Either way, it's considered plagiarism.

You might be plagiarizing if you:

Submit someone else's work as your own.

Buy a paper from a papermill, website or other source.

Copy sentences, phrases, paragraphs, or ideas from someone else's work, published or unpublished, without giving the original author credit.

Replace select words from a passage without giving the original author credit. ·

Copy any type of multimedia (graphics, audio, video, internet streams), computer programs, music compositions, graphs, or charts from someone else's work without giving the original author credit.

Piece together phrases, ideas, and sentences from a variety of sources to write an essay.

Build on someone else's idea or phrase to write your paper without giving the original author credit.

Submit your own paper in more than one course.

Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. Chemeketa Community College regards plagiarism as academic dishonesty. Consequences of plagiarism include failing an assignment, receiving a lower course grade, and even failing a course. For more information, read Chemeketa's Academic Honesty policy at http://www.chemeketa.edu/aboutchemeketa/collegelife/academichonesty/policy.html