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Understanding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is representing someone else's ideas, words, expressions, or data in writing or presentation without giving proper credit. Some examples of plagiarism are:

Turning in a written essay produced by someone else.

Collaborating on a written assignment without the specific approval of the instructor.

Borrowing materials from any source - professional or amateur - and turning them in as original.

Failure to acknowledge through appropriate citations any words, ideas, research, graphics, etc., produced by someone other than the person claiming authorship

(Above points are from the Iowa Western Community College 2004-2005 General Catalog)

To avoid plagiarizing while completing your written assignments or presentation, be sure to properly cite your sources throughout the assignments or presentation. In addition, make sure to provide the proper information on your Reference Page about each source you use.