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Plagiarism: Information for Students |
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 Plagiarism Is a Serious Offence
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According to the AUB Student Code of Conduct:
"Whenever students draw on another's work, they must specify what they borrowed, whether facts, opinions, or quotations, and where they borrowed it from. Using another person's documented ideas or expressions in one's writing without acknowledging the source constitutes plagiarism."
As you can see, AUB does not tolerate plagiarism and if you present plagiarized assignments you are jeopardizing your career. In addition to going against the University's regulations, plagiarism also contravenes ethics and respect for other people's intellectual creations. In the same way that you want people to acknowledge the work you produce as yours, you need to acknowledge other peoples’ ideas as their property. As Trivedi and Williams (2003) point out in Using Sources:
"Drawing on the ideas of others as you develop your own is an essential and exciting component of intellectual work. Whenever you use other writers’ ideas, however, you must acknowledge your sources. Doing so allows you to distinguish between your ideas and those of others; it directs your readers to relevant sources; and it allows you to give credit where credit is due."
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| How Can You Avoid Plagiarism?
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The first step is to learn about proper citation of research sources and about copyright. You should also discuss these issues thoroughly with your classmates and with your instructor to make sure that you understood them correctly. You can also check the handouts and selected resources below. In addition, AUB's University Libraries have several manuals on the proper citation of sources. One of them, Gibaldi's The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Sixth Edition, 2003 has a very useful chapter on Plagiarism. On page 75, you can find the following summary:  You have plagiarized if:
- You took notes that did not distinguish summary and paraphrase from quotation and then you presented wording from the notes as if it were all your own
- While browsing the Web, you copied text and pasted it into your paper without quotation marks or citing the source
- You presented facts without saying where you found them
- You repeated or paraphrased someone’s wording without acknowledgement
- You took someone’s unique or particularly apt phrase without acknowledgement
- You paraphrased someone’s argument or presented someone’s line of thought without acknowledgement
- You bought or otherwise acquired a research paper and handed in part or all of it as your own
 You can avoid plagiarism by:
- Making a list of the writers and viewpoints you discovered in your research and using this list to double-check the presentation of material in your paper
- Keeping the following three categories distinct in your notes: Your ideas, your summaries of others’ material and exact wording you copy
- Identifying the sources of all material you borrow--exact wording, paraphrase, ideas, arguments, and facts
- Checking with your instructor when you are uncertain about your use of sources
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| Short, Printable Handouts
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