The UWG Student Handbook defines plagiarism as "representing the words or ideas of another as one's own."
Some examples include, but aren't limited to:
- Quoting a book, article, or other print media without citing it
- Copying and pasting text from a website without citing it
- Copying and pasting text from an article's abstract without citing it
- Modifying text from the above sources with a thesaurus
- Using another's pictures, graphs, or other non-text media with out citing them
- Using an author's ideas without citing them
- Using another student's work and claiming it as your own
- Using work from a commercial source, such as buying a paper off the Internet
Only common knowledge does not need to be cited. All else does. The general rule is:
When in doubt, cite!
Plagiarism is a violation of the University of West Georgia Honor Code. Punishments for plagiarism can range from a zero assignment grade to failing the class to eventual expulsion. Instructors are required to report instances of plagiarism to the administration for inclusion in your permanent file.
For practice identifying plagiarism, see the Exploring Academic Integrity Tutorial from Claremont Colleges Library.
