My department has asked me, given that it's the end of the semester and final papers are coming near, to send out a general announcement about plagiarism. I spoke briefly about this at the beginning of the semester, but to reiterate: plagiarism is generally prohibited in Berkeley classes and in this one is grounds for failure. For our purposes, plagiarism consists of the unattributed use of another author's work, or the presentation of another author's work as one's own. A good rule of thumb is that if you think it might be plagiarism, it probably is. Thus all of the following count as plagiarism:
1. Directly quoting another person's actual words, whether oral or written, without citation (quotation marks and indication of source text).
2. Using another person's ideas, opinions, or theories, without citation (indication of source text).
3. Paraphrasing the words, ideas, opinions, or theories of others, whether oral or written, without citation.
If you are wondering if your paper, or parts of your paper, may be plagiarized, there are services available, such as EssayRater, that one can use to assess the occurrence of plagiarism in one's paper. Plagiarism.org is a good site for learning more about what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it.
Please keep all of this in mind as you work on your final papers. If you have any questions, feel free to check out one of the above sites or to e-mail me.
Best,
Ben
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