University of the West Indies, Mona

Department of Government

Dr. D. Thorburn

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is one of the most serious offenses in the academic world. It has occurred as long as there have been teachers and students, but the recent growth of the Internet has made the problem much worse. Recent studies indicate that approximately 30 percent of all North American university students may be plagiarizing on every written assignment they complete (www.plagiarism.org). Anecdotal evidence from the University of the West Indies suggests a similar phenomenon

What is plagiarism?

• Plagiarism is a form of cheating.

• Plagiarism is the unauthorized and/or unacknowledged use of another person’s intellectual efforts and creations howsoever recorded, including whether formally published or in manuscript or in typescript or other printed or electronically presented form.

• Plagiarism involves presenting someone else’s words or ideas without giving proper credit.

• Plagiarism includes taking passages, ideas or structures from another work or author without proper and unequivocal attribution of such source(s), using the conventions for attributions or citing used at UWI.

• Since any piece of work submitted by a student must be that student’s own work, all forms of cheating including plagiarism are forbidden (UWI Exams Regulations).

• Plagiarism also involves taking material from the internet without acknowledging or giving proper credit.

• Punishment for plagiarism can range from a failing grade for that paper, or for the course, to suspension from the university from one to seven years.

What constitutes plagiarism?

(a) if you present someone else’s words as though they were your own (by seeming to summarize or paraphrase when in fact you quote directly) or

(b) if you present someone else’s ideas without giving proper credit (by failing to document at all). Punishment depends on the extent of the offense.

Remember: any plagiarism violates academic integrity, so anything beyond the most minor, accidental plagiarism will usually result in a zero grade for a paper, with no chance to rewrite (FSS Handbook).