"Plagiarism is the act of a person presenting another person's work as if it were his or her original work." NCC Plagiarism policy, Student Handbook
Unintentional (or accidental) plagiarism is "using the words or ideas of others and failing to quote or give credit, perhaps because of a lack of knowledge about proper citation" (Plagiarism Defined, Massasoit Community College, 2017).
Plagiarism can be scary, especially if you're not sure when or how you might be plagiarizing something. The easiest way to avoid plagiarizing someone else's writing, even accidentally, is to cite your sources. This guide is here to help you identify examples of plagiarism and see how to avoid it!
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There are three ways to use information from someone else's, or your own, work responsibly and ethically in your own work. In all three cases, you must give credit to the creator of that information by citing their work.
Quoting – Quote by copying the exact words from a source into your paper, and putting quotation marks around them. You quote when the words matter as much as or more than the ideas or information in a passage.
Paraphrasing – Paraphrase by rephrasing a sentence or short passage in your own words. It's not enough to just change the author's words -- you should completely change the way the information is expressed. You paraphrase when it's the ideas or information you need to express, and not the exact words.
Summarizing – Summarize by stating the main ideas of a source or section of a source in your own words. You summarize when you want to refer to a long section of a source or to present an overview of one of your source's ideas.
Always include a citation, whether you quote, paraphrase, or summarize.
If you quote, paraphrase or summarize your own writing (from another paper) you must cite yourself. "Recycling" part of or an entire paper from one class for another is considered plagiarism.
Check out "Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing" at Purdue Owl.
NCC English Composition instructors require students to use Turnitin as part of completing assignments for the course. Faculty uses this tool to check for plagiarism and revise the essays on Canvas prior to grading. For more informtion about Turnitin, please contact your instructor.