Academic cheating is anything you do to make it appear that someone else's work is your own or allowing someone else to copy your work and submit it as their own. It can include sharing another's work, copying answers on an exam or homework assignment, buying a research or creative paper, paying someone else to do your work for you, obtaining copies of exams, homework assignments, and notes and using them in place of doing your own work, etc.

What is plagiarism?

Like cheating, plagiarism is also implying that another person's work is your own. Plagiarism is a form of cheating. Plagiarism is using all or part of someone else's work and presenting it as your own. Plagiarism occurs when you directly copy material from books, journal articles, electronic sources such as the internet or databases, sound recordings, films, or the work of other students and you do not acknowledge the copied material presented in your work. It also occurs when you take somebody else’s work and put it in your own words (paraphrasing) without acknowledging the original source.

Penalties for students caught plagiarising may include a failing grade or resubmission of the assignment.

How does plagiarism happen?

It can happen deliberately, when you knowingly copy other people’s work and claim it as your own.

It can happen accidentally, for instance with copying and pasting some or all of other people’s work into your own work and forgetting to reference it. It can also happen because you have forgotten where you obtained the information you are using, and assume it is based on your own ideas.

Take a few minutes to think about your personal philosophy on academic integrity. Read each of these scenarios and think about the situation. Is what the students are doing wrong or right? Why is it wrong or right? How would you handle the situation? What would you say to them if they were your friends? Then read the commentary for each scenario to see what others have said about the same situation.

Keep a record of the information sources you are using so you can reference them in your work. Referencing is a system used to acknowledge the sources of information you have used in your assignment. You do this by including your sources and listing all resources you have used in writing your assignments.

In order to avoid plagiarism, you have to recognise it.

In this video, you will learn key words to use so that you avoid plagiarism. You will understand how to paraphrase a text, document or cite a source, and research so that the paper contains original content but in your own words.

If you think that the boundaries between research and plagiarism can be ambiguous, it will benefit you to refer to OP plagiarism policy and clarify any points of doubt with your teacher before submitting work.