Plagiarism is taking the written work of others and passing it off as your own.
In some walks of life, committing plagiarism is routine. An example from legislative politics is the common practice of introducing a popular bill that is an exact copy previously introduced by an opponent. Of course, the "author" of the new bill doesn't credit his or her source.
In academia, this kind of behavior is entirely unacceptable. Yet some students try to get away with plagiarism, and undoubtedly some have. But take my word, it is often very easy for a professor to determine when a student uses work written by someone else and hides the actual author's name. For example, when a student who isn't performing well in the rest of the class produces a truly excellent paper, that's a tip to look into powerful computerized databases to find the source. Note also that most papers bought from internet "paper mills" are D-quality or lower--a sad but also wonderful irony from the typical professor's perspective.
The UMBC penalty for intentional plagiarism is--at minimum--an F in the course. For plagiarism committed in my courses, I would seek harsher penalties from the Academic Conduct Committee. Those penalties include suspension, expulsion, and a permanent mark on your transcript that the F was due to academic fraud. I can't imagine why any student would logically risk those penalties instead of trying to do their own work.
Because conducting research from written sources can be complicated, students may commit plagiarism unintentionally. To prevent that from happening with you, do the following:
1. When you copy down someone else's words, use quotations around those words and immediately note the source. Then, when you write your paper and use these words, you must cite the source with a footnote and list the source in your references or bibliography.
2. If you do not use the author's words exactly as written in the original, you must still provide a footnote declaring the original source. It is plagiarism to take the words from the original source and making minor changes to them without saying you have done that. So either use the original quote, or note that you have paraphrased the original source in your footnote. Paraphrases of more than a sentence or two are generally unacceptable. In addition, using long paraphrases is often a poor way of writing. Use your own words and you will probably find that you will communicate more clearly.
3. The main uncertainty about the rules for avoiding plagiarism involves when you use someone else's ideas rather than their words. Here you have more leeway regarding your obligation to provide footnotes and references. Footnotes and references serve dual purposes--they provide intellectual credit to those who did the hard work that you use when writing your own paper, and they guide your readers to potentially useful sources. (And though your only reader for this course may be me, you should expect that you will write in your career for many more people; one of the most important skills you can learn in college is how to write effectively. So begin now and imagine you are writing for a reader who needs your help to understand something.)
As a reader, I appreciate guides to new information, and as a student, you should thank authors who have provided the footnotes and references that can be your clues to where useful knowledge is hidden. But as a published author, I also am thankful to those who cite me, and to tell the truth, a bit angry or disappointed when people who should have cited me did not. So you can use your judgment when deciding which ideas you should footnote, but you might be wise to err on the side of giving credit.
Roy T. Meyers
February 1999