Plagiarism
Plagiarism comes from a Latin word, plagium, which means "kidnapping."
It can refer to using someone else's words without giving credit: three consecutive words are enough to constitute plagiarism. Or it can refer to using someone else's ideas--this time without using the author's own words--again without giving credit.
Plagiarism is taken seriously at Guilford. It is a violation of the Honor Code. If a professor suspects you of having committed plagiarism, you will be reported to the Honors Board. Penalties are stiff . . . and ignorance is no excuse.
Why all the fuss? We're only talking about words and ideas, right?
Wrong. The following excerpt from a statement prepared by the English department at Wake Forest University should explain what's so serious about plagiarism. Special thanks to English instructor Janet Cochran for passing it along:
Plagiarism is a form of theft. Taking words, phrasing, sentence structure, or any other element of the expression of another person's ideas, and using them as if they were yours, is like taking from that person a material possession, something he or she has worked for and earned. Even worse is the appropriation of someone else's ideas. By "ideas" is meant everything from the definition or interpretation of a single word, to the overall approach of an argument. If you paraphrase, you merely translate from his or her language to yours; another person's ideas in your language are still not your ideas. To paraphrase, therefore, without a footnote, is theft, perhaps theft of the worst kind. Here a person loses not a material possession, but something of what characterizes him or her as an individual.
The statement goes on to say, "Your responsibility, when you put your name on a piece of work, is simply to distinguish between what is yours and what is not, and to credit those who in any way have contributed." (italics added for emphasis)