Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism is the act of taking another person’s writing, conversation, song, or idea and passing it off as your own. This content includes information from web pages, books, television shows, email messages, interviews, articles, artwork, or any other medium. Whenever a student paraphrases, summarizes, or quotes directly another person’s work, an appropriate source citation must be included. It is not enough to list the source at the end of the paper. Rather, the citation must occur at the point of usage. Failure to cite properly someone else’s words or ideas is considered plagiarism.
Similarly, students who re-use their own work from a previous class in a new class violate the plagiarism policy (unless the professor has granted approval).
There are three types of plagiarism:
- Global plagiarism: “stealing a paper or speech entirely from a single source and passing it off as one’s own.”
- Patchwork plagiarism: “stealing ideas or language from two or three sources and passing them off as one’s own.”
- Incremental plagiarism: “failing to give credit for particular parts of a paper or speech that are borrowed from other people.”
Stephen E. Lucas, The Art of Public Speaking, 11th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010), 36–39.
All instances of plagiarism must be reported to the Provost for recording in the student’s permanent file. The following steps will be followed for instances of plagiarism:
- First offense – Student will earn a grade of zero on the assignment that was plagiarized. Many times, failing a final assignment will result in a failure of the entire course.
- Second offense (in any class) – Student will fail the course.
- Third offense (in any class) – Student will fail the course and be suspended from CCBS. A student who has been suspended for plagiarism may petition for readmission after six months.
Instances of plagiarism will be identified on the student’s degree audit and transcript as “Probation.”