World History

Plagiarism

In every course at National University, the way you present your ideas in the papers you

write and the ideas themselves must be your own work. You may not use essays or exams

in another class to fulfill the requirements for this class. If the ideas and the way they are

presented is not your own work for this class, then you have engaged in plagiarism. The

root of plagiarism is the Latin word plagiarius, which means "kidnapper." Plagiarism is the

presentation of someone else's ideas as your own; that is, you've "kidnapped" those ideas.

An obvious form of plagiarism is stealing someone else's words and claiming they are yours.

Borrowing another author's sentence, phrase, or even a word that person coined requires

you to use quotation marks and to properly cite the source of the quotation. Restating

another author's ideas in your own words still constitutes plagiarism unless you properly cite

the source of the ideas. Anytime you use three words in a row from another author you

must cite your source.

You must give credit for factual information that is not either the result of your own original

research or common knowledge. Major historical facts, like the dates of the Crusades are

considered common knowledge, so you would not need to cite a source for them. You

would, however, need to give credit to an author who provided you with ideas or an

argument about the impact of the Crusades on the Eastern Mediterranean.

You do not need to cite the source for a well-known proverb ("It takes one to know one") or

a familiar quotation ("To be or not to be"). If you are not sure whether or not you should

cite a source, go ahead and cite it. It is better to be safe than sorry.

Plagiarism, like kidnapping, is a serious offense. Students found plagiarizing may:

a) receive an "F" for the paper in which the plagiarism took place

b) receive an "F" for the course in which the plagiarism occurred

c) be expelled; and/or

d) be barred from graduate or professional schools at this or other universities.

Copying another student's work and passing it off as your own is also plagiarism. In the

case of a student copying another student's work, both or all students will receive the same

academic penalty for plagiarism. That is, not only will the person(s) who copied the work

get an "F," so will the person(s) who allow their work to be copied.

To avoid unintentional plagiarism, be sure that you properly quote, paraphrase, and cite the

sources for your ideas. The History program at National University follows Chicago Style

Citation.

Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) citation guides are available at the following websites:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

or

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/turabian_citationguide.html

A CMOS-Formatted Essay with explanations is available at

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/1300991022_717.pdf.