Plagiarism

In defining “plagiarism,” you might want to consider such things as

• degrees of plagiarism, from blatant to insignificant,
• getting help from others (not just in writing but also in generating ideas or revising/editing),
• paraphrasing others’ ideas,
• when to cite sources (and when citations are not necessary, as with common knowledge),
• borrowing the structure of someone else’s work (in a paragraph or an entire essay),
• self-plagiarism,
• the morality or ethics of plagiarism (including what harm it does, and to whom).

In addition to defining “plagiarism,” you might want to bring in other information that could deepen your reader’s understanding of the term, such things as

• the plagiarizing writer’s motives or intentions,
• the ways that plagiarism is typically handled in elementary and high schools, and how that shapes students’ understanding of the problem,
• the typical consequences of academic plagiarism in colleges,
• illustrative examples,
• whether or not plagiarism is on the rise.