Understanding Plagiarism
GW is an academic community that respects the work and ideas of others. In the academic world, words and ideas are protected by rules and regulations that an institution adopts. At GW, these rules are presented in the GW Code of Academic Integrity
which defines plagiarism as:
Intentionally representing the words, ideas, or sequence of ideas of another as one’s own in any academic exercise; failure to attribute any of the following: quotations, paraphrases, or borrowed information.
This is the scope of responsible writing and research that the GW academic community adopted in AY 96-97. Though the definition does not provide a laundry list of modes of communication such as audio, video, images, etc., the use of the word “ideas” functions as an umbrella term for today’s multi-modal communication platforms.
Even though plagiarism is not a law—more of an academic construction of appropriate professional behavior—much of the ideas adopted in academia about plagiarism derive from the constitutional statute of copyright. Moreover, the concepts that formulate plagiarism and copyright law itself come out of Western cultural concepts of intellectual property. Consequently, nonwestern scholars often do not understand plagiarism as the foundation of intellectual property rights is not part of their culture. For more on English as a Second Language issues concerning plagiarism, see Cultural Issues and Plagiarism
Types of Plagiarism: Intentional and Accidental Plagiarism
Plagiarism is can be divided into two types: intentional and accidental.
Intentional plagiarism is when a person knowingly and willfully presents someone else’s work as his/her own. Robert Harris, in his article “Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers” identifies seven types of intentional plagiarism:
- Downloading a free paper from the Internet and turning the paper in as one’s own work
- Purchasing a paper from a commercial paper mill and turning the paper in as one’s own work
- Copying an article from the web and turning the entire article in as one’s own work
- Using a paper written by another student and turning it in as one’s own work
- Cutting and pasting content in a paper and presenting the content as one’s own
- Misrepresenting direct quotations
- Faking a citation
Intentional plagiarism is often detected when an instructor notices an inconsistency in the writing such as a change in style, content, or vocabulary. Other times an instructor might suspect plagiarism because something about the content seems familiar to the instructor producing a feeling of “I’ve read that before.”
Accidental plagiarism, on the other hand, is when a person does not understand how to properly quote, paraphrase, summarize, or cite resulting in the content being unintentionally attributed to the compiler and not the original author. The Council of Writing Program Administrator’s (WPA) in “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA statement on Best Practices” identifies reasons for this unintentional form of plagiarism:
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Not knowing how to take careful notes
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Not knowing how to integrate sources
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Not knowing how to compile a bibliography
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Confusion due to inconsistent definitions of plagiarism by faculty
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Confusion due to a foreign student’s unfamiliarity with American conventions of academic attribution.
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Contextual confusion caused by switching from a business or organizational environment where it is acceptable to use other’s words and the academic environment where it is not without proper attribution. (2-3)
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