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Citing Sources: Plagiarism

This guide indicates the appropriate form for layout, in-text citations, and bibliography for MLA, APA, and Chicago formatted papers.

What is Plagiarism?

Definition: Plagiarism is using someone else's idea or work as your own without acknowledging their work. Plagiarism is often unintentional.

There are some important components in this definition that are very important to understand:

  1. Any time you hand in something with your name on it, it is presumed to have been created entirely by you unless you indicate otherwise (in other words - you provide a citation indicating the information is from another source).
  2. Any content you did not create yourself (ideas, graphics, etc.) must be cited.
  3. This definition does not take into account whether or not the plagiarism was accidental.

The following list of examples is from Simon Fraser University's "What is Plagiarism" page:

  • Misrepresenting someone else's work as your own:
    • Copying another student's paper or an article from a journal or website
    • Buying an essay from a term-paper mill
  • Copying sentences or paragraphs without properly citing their source:
    • Quoting material without proper use of quotation marks (even if otherwise cited appropriately)
    • Using specific facts without proper attribution (other than information that qualifies as 'common knowledge')
    • Using a specific argument or logic without crediting the source
    • Using art, graphs, illustrations, maps, statistics, photographs, etc. without complete and proper citation
    • Translating a work from one language to another without complete and proper citation
  • Paraphrasing
    • Paraphrasing or summarizing information from a source without proper acknowledgement
    • Re-writing a section but not making it sufficiently different from the original (even if cited appropriately) 

Understanding Written Plagiarism Infographic

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St. Paul's Statement on Plagiarism and Academic Honesty

The St. Paul’s Student Handbook states the following under the section entitled, “Honesty, Plagiarism and Cheating” :
The school is very concerned that every student understands the tremendous importance of honesty and integrity in all aspects of living. Dishonesty and cheating in any form, including plagiarism (the representation of another’s work as one’s own) or allowing one’s work to be used, will be considered serious offenses … No academic advantage is worth one’s personal integrity.
The consequences of dishonesty and cheating will be graded according to the seriousness of the offense as describe above in "Respect for Others." Academic penalties for plagiarism will be incurred in addition to disciplinary measures. Repeated violations will be treated more harshly.
Note: Subject to the discretion of the VPS and the seriousness of the offense, over the entire time of a student's enrollment at St. Paul's, cheating and plagiarism (the sharing of individual work that will be graded) is dealt with according to the following process:
i) For the first offense the student will receive a grade of zero and given a Charge slip,
ii) For the second offense, the student will receive a grade of zero, and be moved to the end of the Discipline system. (15)
Penalties for Academic Dishonesty:

Note: Subject to the discretion of the VPS and the seriousness of the offense, over the entire time of a student's enrollment at St. Paul's, cheating and plagiarism (the sharing of individual work that will be graded) is dealt with according to the following process:

X i) For the first offense the student will receive a grade of zero and given a Charge slip,

X X ii) For the second offense, the student will receive a grade of zero, and be moved to the end of the Discipline system. (15)

For More Information About Plagiarism

Interactive Plagiarism Tutorial

Plagiarism Tutorial

Plagiarism Quiz