LibGuides: Plagiarism: What is it?

Definition

plagiarism, n. -

(1)

The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft.

(2)

A particular idea, piece of writing, design, etc., which has been plagiarized; an act or product of plagiary.

Definition from The Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber: VIVA"At present the dictionary is undergoing its first thoroughgoing revision and update. Around 70 editors, mostly in Oxford and New York, review each word in turn, examining its meaning and history, noting where meanings have changed—or where old definitions no longer suffice—and recraft the entries in the light of the most up-to-date information. The result is the current online edition of the dictionary (in progress)."

Want to know exactly what CNU says how about plagiarism?

Check out the current CNU Student Handbook for complete details!

To shorten that up a bit it is stealing someone's words and ideas. That is right, when you plagiarize, you are taking something that doesn't belong to you.

Plagiarism can come in many forms from copying an entire paper and submitting it as your own to taking someone else's idea and saying it is your own.
It can be intentional - you went out on the internet and found a paper someone else wrote about your topic and you copied it and pasted it into a new document - then you put your name on it and turned it in.

It can be unintentional - you read something - and your wrote it down in your notes - then you put it in your paper - and then simply forgot to cite it (say where you read it.) You intended to cite it, but just didn't during the writing and revision process.

Both of these are wrong. Although intentional plagiarism is much worse, unintentional plagiarism can get you into trouble as well.