What is Plagiarism?
According to the PCC Student Handbook, plagiarism is "the deliberate adoption or reproduction of ideas or words or statements of another person as one’s own without acknowledgement"(8). From the Latin word plagiarius (plunderer), plagiarism is an act of intellectual theft and intellectual fraud ("Plagiarism" 888). The one who plagiarizes is stealing the work of another and then trying to deceive another into believing that work belongs to him/her.
"Work" as listed above includes "original ideas, strategies, and research"(Spatt 438), art, graphics, computer programs, music and other creative expressions. The work may consist of writing, charts, pictures, graphs, diagrams, data, websites or other communication or recording media, and may include "sentences, phrases, and innovative terminology" (438), formatting or other representations.
To acknowledge another’s work, one must cite the source. The term "source" includes published works (books, magazines, newspapers, websites, plays, movies, photos, paintings and textbooks) and unpublished works (class lectures or notes, handouts, speeches, interviews, other students’ papers or material from a research service).
Using words, ideas, computer code or any work by someone else without giving proper credit is plagiarism. Every time you use information from a source, you must cite it.