Understanding Intentional and Unintentional Plagiarism

Introduction

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 that information. Deliberate plagiarism consists of the purposeful use of work authored by another in an attempt to pass it off as entirely original. Common examples include copying and pasting information from online sources and hand-copying written material from books and other hard-copy sources. However, plagiarism can also occur entirely unintentionally, and is usually the result of a genuine lack of understanding about what types of use of research material require referencing. Therefore, it is crucial for students, writers, and professionals to understand the applicable rules that distinguish appropriate from inappropriate use of existing work, and to understand how to properly cite and credit source material.

Deliberate Plagiarism

In principle, the two most fundamental reasons for 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 word-processing functions such as cut and paste make wholesale copying of original work far easier than ever before. The Internet also contributes to plagiarism because it allows extensive searches of virtually all intellectual databases in existence, rather than limiting possible sources of material to a single institutional or public library (Foster, 2007). Other typical forms of deliberate plagiarism include the trading of pre-written term papers among students and even "self-plagiarism," such as when a student recycles work written for one class and submits it for academic credit 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 require formal acknowledgment and crediting of 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 expressed. That is because it is not just the choice of words in the original writing that requires acknowledgment; it is the intellectual ideas, analyses, or point of view expressed by the original author that must be credited, regardless of whether those ideas are presented through different words (Foster, 2007). In that regard, paraphrasing the ideas of others is perfectly acceptable, but only when those ideas are credited to their original source. Perhaps the most common misperception that leads to unintentional plagiarism is the belief that only material quoted word for word requires a citation (Foster, 2007).

Conclusion

This article was tremendously helpful. I realized that I have, in the past, probably been guilty of unintentional plagiarism because I may have reproduced the intellectual ideas of others without crediting them appropriately, genuinely unaware that completely rewriting them in original words was not enough to make those ideas my own. This article taught me how important it is to continually ask myself whether every specific idea expressed in my writing is original, or whether it represents someone else's ideas presented in my own words. I believe that my understanding of the definition of plagiarism is now sufficient for me to avoid committing it unintentionally.