What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism means to take someone’s ideas or words and pretend like they are yours. Students plagiarize when they use information and ideas from other sources and don’t give credit to the source.

A source is the place where you get information. Books, encyclopedias, websites, articles and even videos are some examples of great sources. When you do a report, it’s OK to use other sources. In fact, it will make your report more interesting.

When you do a report or research paper, make sure you write down the name of all the sources you use.

Also, keep a record of what information came from each source.

Why do students Plagiarize?

Some kids don’t realize that it’s cheating. You can find such great information in your sources. Some kids might not know it’s wrong just to copy it.

Sometimes they are just being lazy. They might just copy and paste information from a website right into their report. This is never a good idea. It’s better to summarize the information in your own words.

Sometimes they might think they won’t get a good grade unless they copy the information from someone else. This is not true either. If you copy without giving credit, your teacher might give you a very bad grade!

How Can You Avoid Plagiarizing?

Ask your teachers how they would like you to give credit for the sources that you used.

One good way to give credit is to list your sources in a bibliography. A bibliography is a list of all the sources that you used for your report. Your teacher will want you to write this a certain way and you will need to know important information about your sources. The title of the source, the author, the publisher, the date, page number, or website address are some ways to identify a source. Your teacher will help you learn the way to list your sources in a bibliography. Here is an example of one way to list a book in a bibliography:

Baker, Ima. All about Cakes and Pies. Hershey PA: Sweets Publishing Company, 2009.

If you copy exact sentences from your sources, make sure you use quotation marks in your report. Here’s an example of quotation marks:

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, plagiarism means, “to use words or ideas of another as if your own.”

Even if you don’t copy the words and sentences exactly, you may have summarized the ideas you found. Don’t forget to give credit to the source for the ideas that you used. Even if you put the ideas in your own words (called paraphrasing), you need to give credit to the source that gave you the idea.

Remember don’t just steal someone’s words or ideas without giving credit! You wouldn’t like it if someone copied your paper and pretended it was theirs!

Do not be afraid to use many good sources! Just remember to give credit!

For more information on plagiarism – go to What is Plagiarism?