Research Projects MLA and APA Guides Plagiarism

Definition: Copyright refers to laws that regulate the use of the work of a creator, such as an artist or author. This includes copying, distributing, altering and displaying creative, literary and other types of work. Unless otherwise stated in a contract, the author or creator of a work retains the copyright. This means students cannot use the work unless they receive permission or cite the work’s source.

 

Definition: Plagiarism is the act of taking credit for someone else’s work. This may mean copying someone else’s homework, using information verbatim and not crediting the author of the work (or putting the information in quotation marks), paraphrasing work and not crediting the source, and falsifying source information.The best way to avoid plagiarism is to write in your own words only. Take good notes from sources and use those notes to write your report. If you use someone’s else’s ideas or quote their words, cite the source from which you obtained the information.