Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined in the Texas A&M University-San Antonio's Student Handbook (November 2017) as:

"Plagiarism - The act of passing off some other person’s ideas, words, or work as one’s own. Examples include, but are not limited to, (1) The use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without acknowledgement, documentation or citation; (2) The unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials."

For additional help, take a look at some of the links below.  These websites offer ways to better understand plagiarism and how to avoid it.

Avoiding Plagiarism: Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

This online tutorial is designed to help you understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it in your academic writing.  Plagiarism is often unintentional because students are not aware of all the ways they can accidentally plagiarize.

After completing this tutorial, you should be able to:

• Recognize plagiarism in its various forms
• Understand why avoiding plagiarism is important
• Develop skills for avoiding plagiarism including: citing sources, taking notes, quoting, summarizing and paraphrasing

Taking this for points or extra credit?

Watch the two videos and take the quiz. Enter your preferred email address in the field after you complete the quiz to receive a copy of the results!

The Consequences

Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty that has serious consequences.  You have probably noticed that every syllabus you receive here at Texas A&M University-San Antonio has a statement about plagiarism.  Plagiarism is also addressed in the Student Code of Conduct.

If your professor finds too many similarities between your work and other people’s work, you might be accused of plagiarism.  If you have committed plagiarism, your professor may fail you on that assignment or the whole course.  

If you have been allegedly found violating the Student Code of Conduct regarding academic dishonesty, the incident will be reported to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.  A student conduct conference will be held with a Student Conduct representative.  If you are found responsible for academic misconduct, sanctions will be placed upon you and may range up to suspension depending on the severity of the incident.   

Turnitin is an online service that checks for similarities between your writing and that of others. It is used as a way to detect possible plagiarism. If your professor is using turnitin, you will submit your papers to turnitin in Blackboard. For more information, please refer to the TurnItIn Tools and Resources page on the Academic Technologies website.