There are ALWAYS students who think they understand but end up inadvertently plagiarizing others’ works. I do let students fix the issue if it’s caught early enough in the semester. But, when it continues, isn’t fixed, or is simply too late to fix, those students do get academic sanctions and may have to take this class again. 

Class Police on Honesty: When students fail to avoid plagiarism, I do issue academic sanctions and you may earn a failing grade. Be sure you understand plagiarism and how it applies to this class. Also, note that the Pixabay picture requirement for posts ensures that you do not share copyrighted material. When it comes to plagiarizing written material, any citation errors will be treated as plagiarism and reported to the university. Whether or not the mistake was intentional is irrelevant. All phrases and sentences taken from another source must be clearly identified in APA Style. Remain absolutely clear of plagiarism, dishonesty, and suggestions of such behavior to ensure you avoid academic sanctions that prevent you from earning credit for your work in this class.

Common Q&A on this topic:

1. My report has X% plagiarized. Is that an issue? It’s not the percentage of similar work that matters.
2. The report says my references are plagiarized. Do I need to change them? No, it’s a program and can only identify that others have used the same citations. That’s fine and perfectly normal.
3. It highlighted sentences that I attributed, is that a problem? Do keep in mind that using more than three words from another’s work must be appropriately and clearly quoted to avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism has nothing to do with intention.
4. You only issue sanctions when an assignment isn’t corrected. Is that right? Whenever I ask a student to redo work because of plagiarism, it is my responsibility to note that sanction. If you are able to correct the issue in the time I provide, I will also make sure and let the administration know the issue was corrected. Such sanctions are unlikely to impact any of your work or your grades in the future, especially if this helps you become more careful in the future.

You can take a quiz to help: 

• http://en.writecheck.com/plagiarism-quiz
• https://www.turnitin.com/static/plagiarism-quiz/ 

I also strongly encourage you to review Bailey (2017) on why appropriate citations are important and the Plagiarism Spectrum from TurnItIn (2016).

You can also review Bb’s help on SafeAssign for students. There is information on getting started, submitting in SafeAssign, reading the Originality report, accessibility, and additional help on avoiding plagiarism. 

Also, there is general writing and plagiarism help from the university.  As of Fall 2021, the Writing Center is still offering in-person and online appointments. Or, you can go to your student resources area of WorkDay to access TigerTracks. Once you are there, you should see a link for SmartThinking, a 24/7 tutorial service paid for by the university.

Finally, if you are reviewing this after I noticed you plagiarized an assignment, you need to resubmit.  Here is Bb’s help on that:

• “In the Original Course View … a Start New function appears on the Review Submission History page. Select the assignment link in your course to access the Review Submission History page.”

If you need further clarification on how to use any sources for any assignment, please let me know.

Bailey, J. (2017). What does citation have to do with plagiarism? Is it really plagiarism if I don’t cite correctly? Retrieved from: https://www.plagiarism.org/blog/2017/09/25/what-does-citation-have-to-do-with-plagiarism 

TurnItIn. (2016). The plagiarism spectrum. Retrieved from: https://www.turnitin.com/static/plagiarism-spectrum/

WARNING! Using software that presents a readable but false document image (by adjusting document kerning (whitespace) and/or concentration of words, paragraphs and sentences) to defeat SafeAssign and Turn-It-In textual analysis is completely unacceptable. Such acts will be viewed as deliberate and willful cheating, and be subject to the university’s full disciplinary measures, up to and including removal of grades, expulsion from the course, your degree, and the university. This software obfuscation technique is how many “coursework/essay mills” deliver on their promise of low plagiarism scores but their techniques are detectable, so just don’t take the risk – do work YOU can be proud of, not that you pay for and feel like a fraud about later.

For further information, you can review FHSU’s information on Academic Misconduct.