PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism is defined as ...

... "the taking of others' thoughts or words without due acknowledgment"
Frederick Crews, The Random House Handbook , 3rd ed. NY: Random House, 1980. 405.

... "the failure to indicate the source of borrowed words and ideas"
English Dept. at UC Davis. "Plagiarism." Davis 1984. handout.

... "plagiarize ... to appropriate and pass off as one's own (the writings, ideas, etc., of another)."
Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary . NY: New American Library, 1980.

... "The most blatant form of plagiarism is to repeat as your own someone else's sentences, more or less verbatim. ... Other forms of plagiarism include repeating someone else's particularly apt phrase without appropriate acknowledgment, paraphrasing another person's argument as your own, and presenting another's line of thinking in the development of an idea as though it were your own."
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 3rd ed. New York: MLA, 1988. 20f.

There are 5 types of plagiarism*:

• direct plagiarism: citing somebody else's words (or even a single word, if it's a particularly characteristic term) directly without attributing the quote to the source
• paraphrasing: stealing somebody else's idea/theory indirectly, i.e. by rephrasing what the author said rather than using the author's words, again without citing the source
• mosaic plagiarism: a combination of the two forms described above
• self-plagiarism: "to submit the same piece of your original work to two different professors withou their knowledge and permission." (p. 14) - "In self-plagiarizing, the victim of the theft is not the original author, it is the professor who assigned -a nd expects to receive - original work." (p. 15)
• downloading entire papers from the Internet

*source: Wesel, Lisa. "Where 'Credit' Is Due." Bowdoin 74.2 (Winter 2003):12-19.

The worst case of plagiarism is knowingly copying from somebody else's paper - no matter where it's published. The internet may make it easier to plagiarize, but search engines also make it easier to discover the plagiarism. The internet is not the culprit here; the person who commits plagiarism is the culprit. Plagiarism is not a student prank, it is the profoundest violation of academic ethics imaginable, because scholarship and science depend on intellectual honesty. If we can't depend on the integrity of scholarly findings and research results any more, science is dead. A person who can't conduct his/her studies without plagiarizing does not belong in a university. Sanctions against plagiarism will be increased and made legally binding at Mainz University, so that repeat offenders can be expelled even if the plagiarism occurred in individual classes rather than final examinations. Please take this warning seriously.

As an insurance against plagiarism, all students in the English Department / American Studies are required to add a pledge concerning scholarly honesty to their term paper. The text of this pledge, which you have to date and sign personally, is:

"Ich versichere hiermit, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig verfasst habe und keine anderen Hilfsmittel als die hier angegebenen Quellen benutzt habe. Ich versichere weiter, dass ich diese Arbeit noch nie an anderer Stelle vorgelegt habe und noch keinen akademischen Leistungsnachweis dafür bekommen habe."

Plagiarism, even if unintentional, will result in a failing grade. If you are not sure what constitutes plagiarism, consult the MLA Handbook or the following site: http://www.onlineuniversities.com/plagiarism . And of course, you can always ask me if you have any questions or concerns.

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