Accidental and Intentional Plagiarism

Regardless of whether someone accidentally or intentionally plagiarizes, the consequences are often the same.

Types of Plagiarism

• Copying someone's words without giving them credit.
• Using or repeating someone's ideas or concepts without giving them credit.
• Using an image in a class presentation without giving proper credit to the creator.
• Intentionally presenting someone else's work as your own.
• Failing to acknowledge the contribution of others in work produced collaboratively.

Accidental Plagiarism

Results from the disregard for or unawareness of proper scholarly procedures.

Examples:

• Lack of organization in the research and writing process
• Incorrectly citing your sources—citing the wrong sources or having incomplete or inaccurate citations
• Losing track of your words versus another author's

Intentional Plagiarism

Claiming sole authorship of a work that you know to have been largely written by someone else.

Examples:

• Purchasing a pre-written paper
• Letting someone else write your paper
• Creating phony citations

Poor Uses of Source Material

 These examples do not count as plagiarism, nevertheless, they are serious misuses of source material.

• Misrepresenting someone's ideas or concepts
• Quoting somebody's words incorrectly or out of context