Plagiarism

Plagiarism: the act, whether intentional or not, of presenting the ideas, information, words, or thoughts of others as if they were your own.

Morgan State University has very strict guidelines regarding punishment for plagiarism. Anyone caught plagiarizing any assignment for this class will automatically receive, at the very least, an F and zero (0) credit for that assignment. Multiple offenses will certainly result in FAILURE for the ENTIRE course, regardless of your cumulative average. Plagiarism on any research paper, whether initial draft or final draft, will result in FAILURE for the ENTIRE course, regardless of your cumulative average.

In other words, DON'T do it! And PLEASE don't think you won't get caught. With today's web technology, catching plagiarism, especially of information taken off the internet, is becoming increasingly simple. In fact, if you don't believe me, I encourage you to visit the web sites I use most often (I catch on average about 15 plagiarized papers per semester):

www.alltheweb.com
www.google.com

If you have any doubts about whether you are committing plagiarism, consider this:

ANYTIME you introduce a borrowed idea from another person, whether as a Quote, Paraphrase, or Summary, you need to provide proper documentation to acknowledge your source.
However, simply providing a page full of someone else's words or ideas and then providing a parenthetical citation at the end of it is not sufficient.
You need to make it clear when you are introducing someone else's thoughts.
ANY time you are taking words verbatim from someone else, you MUST use quotation marks.

If you still are unsure, PLEASE come talk to me! I will gladly let you know when and if you need to provide more documentation.

** PLEASE NOTE**

This policy also applies to Homework assignments. I will ask you questions, the answers to which will be found in the text book. DO NOT copy passages out of the book verbatim without using quotation marks!! DO NOT Copy other students' work either!!
Group presentations also MUST include detailed documentation for ALL information gathered from outside sources !!