Don't hide from the information honor code . . . by Andrea Zollman. (Graphics and animation courtesy of Canva.com)

Academic Honesty, Defined

"The responsibility to produce your own work and not pass off the work of other people as your own" (Sheldon, "Academic Honesty"). 

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism occurs when you use another source or someone else's words or ideas without giving them credit. 

(Based on the University of Oxford's definition of plagiarism.)

Here are some examples of plagiarism, both accidental or intentional:

• Using your own work in more than one class without crediting your earlier work.
• Using work produced by artificial intelligence using uncredited or made up sources
• Famous people who plagiarized material ("Famous Plagiarism Examples," Your Dictionary.com), accidentally:
  • Melania Trump, former First Lady plagiarizing former first lady Michelle Obama's Speech
• Using an essay "farm" or paper writing service instead of doing your own work. Explore on your own by reading this article from CollegeExpress.com on why it's unethical to use these types of services. 

Other ways to commit accidental plagiarism include:

• When quoting an original source, changing a few of the words but still enclosing the passage in quotation marks.
• When paraphrasing, only changing a few words of an original source. Paraphrasing requires that you rewrite the information in the original source using your words without changing the meaning. 

Explore more by visiting the Writing Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's page on "Quoting and Paraphrasing." 

(Background image courtesy of Canva.com)