updated: 24 April 2006

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is presenting someone's ideas as your own without acknowledgement and is a serious offense that may result in anything from failure of the assignment to expulsion from school. York University has resources to help you understand and avoid plagiarism. Take a look at York's Academic Integrity (opens in a new window) web site which has more information about plagiarism and an online tutorial on Academic Integrity.

Quick tips on avoiding plagiarism

The following tips are excerpts from Joseph Trimmer's A Guide to MLA Documentation:

1.Document your sources whenever you:

• use a direct quotation

• copy a table, chart, or other diagram

• construct a table from data provided by others

• present examples of factual information you have taken from a specific source to support your own arguments

2. Take notes carefully making sure you identify what is a quotation or paraphrase.

3. Formulate and develop your own ideas, using your sources to support rather than replace your own.

Ready to move on? Go to  Keeping track of your sources

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License.   York University Libraries & Foundations Computer Assistance Program, York University, Toronto, ON Canada M3J 1P3.

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