Plagiarism

What is Plagiarism?

According to the Otis College Student Handbook:

Plagiarism occurs when a person deliberately uses concepts, language, images, music, or other original (not common knowledge) material from another source without acknowledging that other source and/or without making substantial modifications to that source content enough to view it as original or authentic work. This applies to the production of art and design just as it applies to writing. (86) [Emphasis added by Heather Cleary]

While plagiarism is usually associated with academic papers, it can happen in any context. There can be serious consequences, even outside of academia, including lawsuits and job loss.

This guide can help you learn to identify and avoid plagiarism in your academic work and creative practice.

Scenarios

Specific examples of plagiarism and/or cheating include but are not limited to:

• Submitting someone else’s work in whole or part (including copying directly from a source without documentation and/or alteration, or turning in studio work that is not your own).
• Submitting work that was primarily produced, revised, or substantially altered by another person or generative AI.
• Cutting and pasting any textual or image-based work from the internet without proper documentation or clarification of sources.
• Failure to cite sources. Proper citations in MLA style and a Works Cited page must accompany all papers. You can find citation information through the Library website.
• Using the writing, editing, or creative services of another person who quantitatively and/or qualitatively revises the paper and/or studio work significantly. An editor often fixes the paper without the writer learning how to do it him/herself. Sometimes the editor changes so much of the paper that it is no longer the student writer’s work and thus plagiarized. A trained tutor helps the writer to learn how to revise the papers and eventually not need the tutor’s assistance.
• Presenting the same (or substantially the same) work for more than one course or within the same course without obtaining approval from the instructor of each course.
• Acting dishonestly or conveying information that the student knows or is known to be false, by actions such as lying, forging or altering any document or record in order to gain an unfair academic advantage.

(These scenarios were taken from the Academic Integrity section of the Otis College Student Handbook.)

Self-Plagiarism

Self-plagiarism, or "double-dipping," is deception and goes against the core principles of ethical writing. Papers are assigned for you to demonstrate what you have learned in a particular class. If you reuse a paper you wrote for a previous class, you are not demonstrating new learning.

Examples of self-plagiarism:

• Turning in a paper for a current class that you already submitted as an assignment for a previous class
• Using a substantial amount of a paper written for another course as content for a new assignment
• Treating anything you've previously written as if it were new material