{"id":15495,"date":"2023-06-13T14:38:35","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T21:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/?p=15495"},"modified":"2026-06-04T13:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T20:47:17","slug":"what-is-plagiarism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/what-is-plagiarism\/","title":{"rendered":"What is plagiarism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is plagiarism, and what does it have to do with a 1st-century Roman poet? Learn more from your library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-content\/uploads\/marcus.jpg\" alt=\"Marcus Valerius Martialis portrait\" class=\"wp-image-15486\" srcset=\"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-content\/uploads\/marcus.jpg 400w, https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-content\/uploads\/marcus-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-content\/uploads\/marcus-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Poet Marcus Valerius Martialis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/mywcc.whatcom.edu\/OnlineResources\/LibraryDatabases.aspx?DirectURL=https:\/\/search.credoreference.com\/content\/title\/sageukhe?institutionId=5092&amp;tab=contents\">The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education<\/a><\/em> defines <a href=\"https:\/\/mywcc.whatcom.edu\/OnlineResources\/LibraryDatabases.aspx?DirectURL=https:\/\/search.credoreference.com\/content\/entry\/sageukhe\/plagiarism\/0?institutionId=5092\">plagiarism<\/a> as &#8220;the use of others\u2019 words or ideas without the appropriate acknowledgment. &#8230; Specifically, plagiarism involves a writer reusing propositional content and\/or form of expression from another text without adequately signalling that relationship to the reader, and with an intention to mislead the reader about that relationship. (Pecorari, 2019, p. 17) &#8230;\u00a0However, not all definitions agree that the appropriation of others\u2019 words or ideas needs to be intentional to be considered plagiarism.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The article explains that historians trace the term <em>plagiarism <\/em>to 1st-c. poet Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis), pictured above, who was tired of other poets reading his work as their own. He used the word <em>plagiarus<\/em>, meaning kidnapper.<br \/><br \/>Credo Reference&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/mywcc.whatcom.edu\/OnlineResources\/LibraryDatabases.aspx?DirectURL=https:\/\/search.credoreference.com\/search\/all?institutionId=5092&amp;searchPhrase=plagiarism\">topic page<\/a> has more on plagiarism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Daniel Victor wrote for <em>The New York Times<\/em> about an unfortunate case of plagiarism by novelist Jumi Bello. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/05\/10\/books\/jumi-bello-plagiarism.html\">Her Novel Was Pulled for Plagiarism. Her Explanation Was, Too.<\/a> It&#8217;s a good illustration of why plagiarism is such a big problem, and how some people may be tempted to do it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(For information about how to access <em>The New York Times<\/em>, see <a href=\"https:\/\/askwa.libanswers.com\/whatcomcc\/faq\/313608\">this FAQ<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best way to avoid plagiarism is to cite your sources. The library has a great tutorial for that, including some good visuals for understanding whether you might be plagiarizing. Any questions about citing? Ask a Librarian!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is plagiarism, and what does it have to do with a 1st-century Roman poet? Learn more from your library. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education defines plagiarism as &#8220;the use of others\u2019 words or ideas without the appropriate acknowledgment. &#8230; Specifically, plagiarism involves a writer reusing propositional content and\/or form of expression from another [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[322,348],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reference","category-research-guides"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19883,"href":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15495\/revisions\/19883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/librarywp.whatcom.edu\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}