What is Plagiarism?

Turning in someone else's work as your own.
Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit or a citation.
Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks.
Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation.
Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit.
Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarizing assignments can have a serious effect on your college career. You may fail a paper or even an entire class. Ignorance of the rules isn't always going to be enough to keep yourself out of trouble.

Rules to prevent plagiarism

See the rules below for steps you can take to prevent plagiarism:

Use a citation for someone else’s ideas that are not common knowledge, even when your words are different from those in the source.
Include a citation for any ideas that are not your own which you obtained from a source.
Add a citation with a page or paragraph number for a direct quotation.
Use quotation marks for words or phrases copied directly from a source. Include quotation marks even if you copy only two or three words from a source.
Avoid the mistake of using a citation and copying some of the phrasing directly from a source without including quotation marks in the text or page numbers in the citation.
Avoid using too many direct quotations, even if you include citations. The bulk of the paper should contain your original ideas supported by information from sources. Using too many direct quotations causes plagiarism because the majority of ideas in a paper are not your own. To avoid plagiarism, check with your instructor for guidelines about the length and number of direct quotations that should be used in a paper.

HU Academic Dishonesty - Plagiarism Policy

When an incident of academic dishonesty is suspected, the faculty member responsible for that course shall notify the accused student of the incident. If the faculty member determines that an incident of academic dishonesty has occurred, the faculty member may assign an appropriate consequence including (a) assignment of a grade of zero percent (0%) for the assignment in question; (b) referral of the student for remedial plagiarism education; (c) assignment of a grade of “F” for the course in question; or a combination of those consequences.

The incident description and the faculty member’s decision will be reported to Office of Student Services and, in the case of assigning a grade of “F” in the course, to the Office of Records and Registration. If the student accepts the faculty member’s decision, the student’s written acceptance will also be included in this file. If the student disputes and disagrees with the faculty member’s decision, the student may initiate an appeal with the assistance of the Office of Student Services.

A student who appeals a faculty member’s decision will be given an opportunity to present before a panel consisting of one student and two faculty members. (Although a student may request assistance from the Office of Student Services to navigate the appeal process, the student must present his or her argument without the assistance of Student Services staff or another individual, such as a parent or attorney.) None of these individuals should be connected with the student or the faculty member who reported the
incident; one of the faculty members should, if possible, be familiar with the discipline of the course in which the alleged incident occurred. Neither faculty member may be a member of the Office of Student Services staff. Once both the faculty member and the accused student have presented before the panel, the panel will decide within ten (10) business days from the initial report to uphold or overturn the reporting faculty member’s decision.

About Turnitin

turnitin logo Turnitin is a tool that measures the originality of submitted assignments, and flags assignments that may involve plagiarism. This tool must be enabled by the professor, and students do not need to do anything extra for a submitted assignment to be processed by Turnitin, though the submission process is slightly different for a Turnitin Assignment than a regular Assignment (see guides below).

If Turnitin is enabled, students, as well as instructors, can view the originality reports for their own submissions.

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