What Is Plagiarism

"Plagiarism" is using the words or ideas from a source in your paper without giving credit to the original source.

"Plagiarism" means using the words or ideas from a source in your paper without giving credit to the original source, no matter what kind of source you used--book, web page, interview, anything. Plagiarism is considered cheating and can get you in serious trouble, including getting an F for a course or even thrown out of school.

From the Austin Community College Student Handbook (2010-11 edition, p.34):

2.A Academic dishonesty

2 A 01 Students have the responsibility to submit coursework
that is the result of their own thought, research, or selfexpression
The following are guidelines to assist students in
avoiding academic dishonesty:

• Students must do their own work and submit only their
own work on examinations, reports, and projects, unless
otherwise permitted by the instructor Students are
encouraged to contact their instructor about appropriate
citation guidelines

Many students plagiarize. Many get away with it. But faculty are now trained on ways to hunt down plagiarism, so a student is taking a pretty big risk if they copy someone else's work and present it as their own.