Stopplagiat.nu is an online, easily-read guide to ethical referencing and provides examples of typical plagiarism pitfalls.
Plagiarism is one of the most serious offenses you can be charged of as a student - and for that reason the sanctions are proportionately severe. If you plagiarize you risk suspension, temporary or permanent, which means that you cannot keep up with your studies and will be barred from sitting an exam.
Plagiarism is not only a matter of intentionally stealing somebody else´s work and passing it off as your own, or of borrowing a phrase from a book without proper reference. Unintentional transgressions such as sloppy referencing or un-referenced paraphrasing, ie rendering somebody else´s thoughts or ideas in your own words without telling your reader who or what inspired you, is just as serious.
It is easy to plagiarize without knowing it and without meaning to and you could face sanctions even though you never intended to do wrong. This is why knowing the rules and paying attention when implementing them is of the essence.
On this page you will find information that can help avoid unintentional plagiarism.
The assignment deadline is fast approaching but so is the next party and perhaps the chance of love - and suddenly the time is up and something needs to happen quickly. But what? These are the stakes of the short film A Plagiarism Carol by the University of Bergen, Norway.
The film is only 5.13 mins long and is quite entertaining, so take a moment off from your reading and see what happens when the main character is tempted to plagiarise.
With English subtitles
CBS subscribes to a so-called plagiarism detection software that, through a text comparison algorithm, automatically scans student assignments for unauthorized loans. The software helps examiners identify inappropriate use of sources, not just in 1:1 reproductions but also in cases of paraphrases and the like.
The software does not distinguish between intentional cheating and simple carelessness, both will be flagged up as cases of potential plagiarism. This is why it really does make sense to take referencing seriously and be careful and scrupulous when using somebody else´s work in your assignments.