［A］What to do as a student?
［B］Various definitions of plagiarism
［C］Ideas should always be sourced
［D］Ignorance can be forgiven
［E］Plagiarism is equivalent to theft
［F］The consequences of plagiarism
Scholars, writers and teachers in the modern academic community have strong feelings about acknowledging the use of another person’s ideas. In the English-speaking world, the term plagiarism is used to label the practice of not giving credit for the source of one’s ideas. Simply stated, plagiarism is “the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one’s own of the ideas, or the expression of ideas of another.”
1. ________
The penalties for plagiarism vary from situation to situation. In many universities, the punishment may range from failure in a particular course to expulsion from the university. In the literary world, where writers are protected from plagiarism by international copyright laws, the penalty may range from a small fine to imprisonment and a ruined career. Protection of scholars and writers, through the copyright laws and through the social pressures of the academic and literary communities, is a relatively recent concept. Such social pressures and copyright laws require writers to give scrupulous attention to documentation of their sources.
2.________
Students, as inexperienced scholars themselves, must avoid various types of plagiarism by being self-critical in their use of other scholars' ideas and by giving appropriate credit for the source of borrowed ideas and words, otherwise dire consequences may occur. There are at least three classifications of plagiarism as it is revealed in students' inexactness in identifying sources properly. They are plagiarism by accident, by ignorance, and by intention.
3.________
Plagiarism by accident, or oversight, sometimes is the result of the writer's inability to decide or remember where the idea came from. He may have read it long ago, heard it in a lecture since forgotten, or acquired it second-hand or third-hand from discussions with colleagues. He may also have difficulty in deciding whether the idea is such common knowledge that no reference to the original source is needed. Although this type of plagiarism must be guarded against, it is the least serious and, if lessons learned, can be exempt from being severely punished.
4.________
Plagiarism through ignorance is simply a way of saying that inexperienced writers often do not know how or when to acknowledge their