Being
part of an academic community means taking responsibility for one’s actions as
a student, thinker, writer, and speaker. The
Bridgewater College community has adopted “Christian values, high standards of
integrity and excellence, affirming and challenging each member,” as described
in the Mission Statement. Supporting
this mission, the student Code of Ethics asks that students “demonstrate
respect” for themselves and the community, “take responsibility for [their]
actions,” and “uphold the standards and policies of our community.”
Members
of this academic community “demonstrate respect” for themselves and others
by recognizing and acknowledging the use of their intellectual property—the
ideas, facts, and wording discovered through research. Members “take responsibility” for [their] actions” by
including accurate documentation of others’ ideas, facts, and wording used in
any writing they do. Members
“uphold the standards and policies of our community” by demonstrating
ethical practices in using others’ ideas, facts, and wording, as well as by
not cheating on tests.
Defining Plagiarism
Plagiarizing is considered “cheating, stealing, and lying” because it involves presenting someone else’s work as one’s own.
Plagiarizing means presenting someone else’s argument, definition, interpretation of events, interpretation of a text, or factual information as though they were one’s own, whether or not one uses the exact wording of the source. It is the presentation of such information, rather than the author’s intention, that constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism may appear in the wording of a paper written for a class or a classroom presentation (including visual aids and Power Point) or a Web page or a newsletter; it may appear in the use of graphics created by anyone other than the author. In short, any time that a student uses materials written or produced by someone else, it is the student’s responsibility to document the source of such materials.
Documentation
typically requires all three of these elements: (1) use of quotation marks
around wording that is not the student writer’s (or indentation of long
quotations); (2) with citation following any quoted, summarized, or
paraphrased material as well as specific facts gleaned from a source (in the
form of parenthetical citation or footnote or endnote); and (3) a
bibliography that indicates complete publication information for the source.
All of the following examples constitute plagiarism:
the deliberate act of putting one’s name on a paper written by someone else or putting one’s name on text copied from a Web page and pasted into a document;
the presentation of factual information without citing the source from which the information was obtained (with the exception of "general knowledge" as defined within specific classroom situations);
the use of someone else’s words to present ideas, information, or analysis without use of quotation marks and citation;
the use of someone else’s ideas or argument without attribution;
the presentation of graphics (including pictures, tables, charts, etc.) without attribution, unless these materials are in the public domain.
To incorporate material from a source into a paper,
presentation (including Power Point), Web page, or other text, one may quote
the source, summarize
the source (with citation), or paraphrase
the source.
A paraphrase is the representation of another writer's text, explanation, argument, or narrative that is about the same length as the original. A paraphrase is substantially different from the original source in sentence structure as well as wording. The length of a paraphrase distinguishes it from a summary, since a summary is a restatement of significantly shorter length than the original.
When one paraphrases, one should:
use alternative wording to the author’s throughout the paraphrase;
enclose any phrases from the source in quotation marks;
present the ideas of the original using one’s own sentence structure as well as one’s own word choice (following the author’s sentence structure, even if the writer uses alternative wording, is considered plagiarizing);
cite the source, even if one does not use a direct quotation from the source;
introduce the topic in one’s own words when including a paraphrase, still making it clear that one is presenting someone else’s ideas.