Plagiarism - Its Nature and Consequences

Introduction: Our Ideas Emerge Against the Backdrop of Previous Formulations

Rarely, if ever, do we develop ideas in our individual minds, free of the effects and influences of others’ previous findings, claims, and analyses. This is not to suggest that writers never forge new ideas; rather, the majority of one’s thoughts—and certainly the intellectual thinking that we do in university settings—is prompted, shaped, and changed in response to and in light of what has already been stated by others. Our ideas emerge in response to reading others’ texts, in sites of conversation and verbal exchange, with and against the grain of the words and formulations of others.

It is appropriate to think of the university as a vast society of influences, composed of various formal sites of critical discussion, reporting, and debate, both verbal and written. University persons—both scholars and students—gain status and authority by dint of their intellectual involvement in written and verbal exchange (detailing their findings, casting written arguments, offering careful analyses of their objects of study). Since the university values the public thinking of its faculty and students, it requires that its members formally recognize who has made which sorts of statements in what settings. Scrupulously citing the origin of quotations, summaries, and other borrowed material included in your paper enables the social value of respect to exist within intellectual circles of research and scholarship around the globe. Not to formally recognize the work and influences of others in your writing is to plagiarize, violating an ethic of mutual regard.

The Academic Community’s Guidelines: The Practice of Documentation

It has become commonplace to envision the verbal and written exchanges between speakers and listeners, readers and writers, researchers and their sources, as interactions constituting communities of discourse. Discourse communities share interpretive, analytic, and argumentative conventions. Academic discourse communities (often shaped as "disciplines" or "fields of inquiry") agree to refer scrupulously to one another’s writings and research findings by explicitly linking quoted materials to the name of the person or persons who uttered or wrote them, and by carefully describing the influence others have had upon them.

In fact, a mark of strong academic writing is the practice of situating one’s claims and findings within a tradition of inquiry into the subject, detailing the nature of the exchanges that have preceded the present foray into the ongoing conversation, at times indicating one’s affinities or disagreement with one or another avenue of thought. Ethos and authority are enhanced when writers demonstrate their uses of others’ statements, texts, and representations, and when they appropriately identify these sources in their arguments and analyses. This practice is called documentation. Guidelines for how to correctly cite materials used within your writing, and rules for assembling the list of works that you cite in your paper are compiled by academic organizations which produce style manuals. Information from these style manuals can be accessed in the Citing Sources section of the Library web page.

Plagiarism Defined

Academic communities, then, demand that writers credit others for their work, and that the source of their material clearly be acknowledged. Not to do so is to plagiarize, to intentionally or unintentionally appropriate the ideas, language, key terms, or findings of another without sufficient acknowledgment that such material is not one’s own. As the Modern Language Association defines this transgression:

Scholarly authors generously acknowledge their debts to predecessors by carefully giving credit to each source. Whenever you draw on another’s work, you must specify what you borrowed whether facts, opinions, or quotations and where you borrowed it from. Using another person’s ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source constitutes plagiarism. Derived from the Latin plagiarius ("kidnapper"), plagiarism refers to a form of intellectual theft. . .In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you wrote or thought something that you in fact borrowed from someone, and to do so is a violation of professional ethics. (Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 2^nd. ed, New York: MLA, 1998: 151).

Plagiarism encompasses a range of errors and violations. Though the charge of plagiarism can be leveled against writers who incorrectly or neglect to cite borrowed materials, it most often tempts students who find themselves in the dire straits of having to complete a written assignment without previously having undertaken the laborious and time-consuming process of research, reading, note-taking, interpretation, and analysis. Wholesale copying from sources is an easy way to fill up the page and to turn something—anything—in on time. In all cases, it is far better to contact one’s instructor and honestly to discuss with him or her a strategy for completing an assignment rather than to risk humiliation and judicial redress. Instructors will, within reason and to the best of their abilities, help you to get your papers started and help you to make progress with your work. You will do yourself and your instructors justice if you openly and squarely discuss the circumstances of your progress or lack thereof.

On occasion, students accused of plagiarism have claimed that their plagiarism has occurred without their knowledge or intent. Since ignorance of convention is not a reasonable defense, it is best to become thoroughly acquainted both with the various ways in which plagiarism is construed, and with the conventions of source attribution and proper documentation. Some students seem to believe that there are different degrees of plagiarism, some not as a bad as others. No distinctions are made between any of the following acts. All constitute instances of plagiarism as outlined in Duke University's Bulletin of Information & Regulations, and all constitute transgression of the University's Community Standard. You will be charged with plagiarism if you:

If the final work you submit—all of it—is not yours, it does not matter how you came by it. If you use another person’s work to further your own understanding of a subject, you must credit the source. If a situation arises in your own work not covered below, you should ask your instructor for help before turning in your work, or visit The Writing Studio, Duke’s tutorial facility for undergraduate writers, where a consultant will, free of charge, advise you about best practices.

Consequences to Plagiarizing at Duke

As a violation of the Honor Code, charges of plagiarism are brought to the attention of Judicial Affairs, which initiates an investigation that may lead to formal charges made at an Undergraduate Judicial Board hearing. The process for the investigation and the adjudication of charges may be accessed at the Office of Judicial Affairs’ Online Guide to The Disciplinary Process at Duke. Plagiarism is a serious offense that can result in a variety of sanctions (failure of the course in which the plagiarism occurred and suspension from the University among them). The Duke University Honor Council devotes itself to educating the University community about the importance of maintaining an ethic of academic integrity. Their online materials provide useful information regarding special events, workshops, and ongoing discussions about ethical intellectual conduct at Duke.  You can also visit the Library's web tutorial on Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism.

This essay was written by Van E. Hillard; it has been edited to add links to new resources.