Foster, R.L. "Avoiding Unintentional Plagiarism." Journal Specialists

¶ … Foster, R.L. "Avoiding unintentional plagiarism." Journal Specialists Pediatric Nursing, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2007): 1 -- 2. Plagiarism is an issue throughout modern academia as well as in all realms of professional writing. Generally, plagiarism refers to any use of the writing or intellectual product of another person without acknowledging and crediting the original source of the information. Deliberate plagiarism consists of the purposeful use of work authored by another in an attempt to pass off writing that includes that work as being entirely the original work of the person using that information.

Common examples of deliberate plagiarism include copying and pasting information from online sources and hand-copying written material from books and other hardcopy sources. However, plagiarism can also occur entirely unintentionally, and usually is the result of a genuine lack of understanding as to what types of use of research material requires referencing. Therefore, it is crucial for students, writers, and professional to understand the applicable rules that distinguish appropriate and inappropriate use of existing work in connection with properly citing and crediting that source material.

Discussion Deliberate Plagiarism In principle, the two most fundamental reasons that crediting the work of others when using it in writing are intellectual honesty and fairness to the original author. Deliberately using the prior work of others and trying to disguise it so as to present it as new original work is the most blatant form of plagiarism (Foster, 2007). Since the Internet age, the incidence of academic dishonesty of this type has increased dramatically, mainly because the word processing functions (i.e.

cut and paste) make wholesale copying of original work so much easier than ever before. The Internet medium also contributes to plagiarism because it allows extensive searches of virtually all intellectual databases in existence rather than limiting the possible sources of material to a single institutional or public library (Foster, 2007). Other typical forms of deliberate plagiarism are trading of pre-written term papers among students and even "self-plagiarism" such as where a student recycles work written for one class and submits it for academic cred-it in a subsequent class.

Unintentional Plagiarism Plagiarism can also occur entirely unintentionally by virtue of genuine ignorance about what plagiarism is and what types of uses of outside sources requires formal acknowledgement and crediting the original source (Foster, 2007). While it is obvious that actually using the words of another author requires a citation, many students and others simply do not realize that paraphrasing or rewriting the work of others is also plagiarism unless the original writer is credited for the ideas in the passage.

That is because it is not just the choice of words used in the original writing that requires acknowledgment; in fact, it is the intellectual ideas, analyses, or point-of-view expressed by the original author that must be credited, regardless of whether or not those ideas are presented through different words (Foster, 2007). In that regard, paraphrasing the ideas of others is perfectly acceptable, but only provided the ideas are credited to their original source.

Perhaps the most common misperception that results in unintentional plagiarism is that only material that is actually quoted word for word requires a citation (Foster, 2007). In principle, plagiarizing by paraphrasing can occur both deliberately, such as where the writer is fully aware that reproducing the ideas of another in different words without credit is plagiarism, as well as entirely unintentionally, such as where the writer genuinely believes that rewriting the material in all-original words is sufficient to make it original writing (Foster, 2007).

As a general rule, the only types of information that do not require a reference are factual statements that are commonly known and purely historical facts that are widely available in reference works. Conversely, any opinion or analysis presented in original work must be credited to the author irrespective of.