¶ … copying of a few isolated sentences in this case constitute plagiarism? Technically, yes. Plagiarism is "the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit" (On being a scientist, 2009: 15). The key word in this definition is 'appropriate.' Using a direct quote without enclosing the words in quotation marks and identifying the author constitutes plagiarism. Even if the original author is cited as a reference, if words are used directly and not identified as a direct quote, plagiarism has still taken place. It would not have been plagiarism if Professor Lee had paraphrased the original paper, cited the source, and then included the paper in his reference list.

In this instance, the words Lee stole were not in reference to original ideas. However, they still go against the basic, core ethical principles of good academic conduct. Were a student to cite words not his own in a research paper without proper quotes and citation, Lee would no…