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Plagiarism and Academic Honesty

This guide is to introduce students to the concept of plagiarism: what it is and why it's worth avoiding.

Introduction to Plagiarism

At Jefferson College, academic dishonesty encompasses two things: cheating and plagiarism.  

This guide is to introduce you to the concept of plagiarism: what it is and why it’s something worth caring about. The resources and information provided here are meant to help you avoid plagiarizing (and, therefore, the potentially severe consequences), or if you’ve intentionally or accidentally plagiarized, help give you knowledge and tools to avoid plagiarizing again in the future. 

If you’ve been referred to this course due to intentionally or accidentally plagiarizing, please follow the guide based on the numbered pages on the left. Be sure to read each page thoroughly.

As you work your way through this course, test your understanding by taking the poll on each page. At the end of the guide, you will find the link to take your formal quiz and answers to the polls. 

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is taking the words or ideas of someone else and passing them off as if they are your own. This can include:

  • Turning in someone else's work with your name on it
  • Copying large pieces of text from a source without proper, or any, citation
  • Piecing together text from multiple sources and turning it in as your own
  • Copying from a source but changing some words or phrases
  • Paraphrasing (rewriting something in your own words) from a number of different sources without citing them
  • Buying a paper and turning it in as your own work
  • Turning in some of your previous work that you did for another course -- this is self-plagiarism! 

Plagiarism can happen even if you've attempted to cite things properly, too. This can happen if you:

  • Mentioned an author or source but didn't provide a bibliographic citation
  • Cited a source incorrectly so it's impossible for others to find or verify
  • Used a direct quote and cited it, but didn't put quotation marks around the text
  • Paraphrased from multiple cited sources, but didn't include any of your own work

Basically, if you’re incorporating anyone else’s words into your own work, you must give them credit and offer your audience a way of finding the original source of the information. The source should be indicated within the content of your work (in-text citations) and also at the end (bibliography, references, notes, etc.)

Why You Want to Avoid Plagiarizing

Getting caught plagiarizing is actually a pretty serious problem. The consequences of plagiarism can be personal, professional, ethical, and even legal. 

Students that commit plagiarism may face: 

  • Failure of an assignment or class
  • Disciplinary actions like suspension or expulsion
  • Being barred from attending other colleges or universities

Professionals that commit plagiarism may face:

  • Ruined reputations
  • Loss of a job/career
  • Legal action
  • Financial losses

No one is above getting caught plagiarizing -- not students, academics, journalists, or other successful creators. Consider these famous examples of people whose reputations suffered as a result of being caught plagiarizing:

  • Marks Chabedi -- Former academic who plagiarized an entire dissertation by Dr. Kim Lanegran (read her side of the story here). He was fired from his professorship at a university in South Africa and his Ph.D. was revoked.
  • Alex Haley, author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family -- Acclaimed author accused of copying passages from Harold Courlander's book, The African. He was sued, settled out of court for $650,000, and released a statement acknowledging that he plagiarized. Read more about that here. 
  • Jonah Lehrer -- A (now disgraced) journalist forced to resign from the New Yorker after he was found to have fabricated quotes for a book and self-plagiarized multiple times. Read more here.