The Modern Language Association, 1999. Available at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library Reference Desk. To plagiarize is to copy text from a book, an article, a friend's paper, or any web site without giving credit to the author. Reworking somebody else's sentences with a thesaurus is still plagiarism. Each school and college at the University sets its own procedures for dealing with plagiarism.
Plagiarism is fairly easy to detect.
A reader may notice a change in writing style, recognize text from an article or another paper, or use plagiarism-detecting software. Evidence of plagiarism in a paper for Psychology 111 will be referred to your school or college for action. If you have any doubt about whether or not you are committing plagiarism, cite your source or sources. A writer who fails to give appropriate acknowledgment when repeating another's wording or particularly apt term, paraphrasing another's argument, or presenting another's line of thinking is guilty of plagiarism. Careers and reputations have been damaged by findings of plagiarism.