plagiarism???

Question

Is copying someone's work but replacing the words still plagiarism??? and how does the teacher know if the paper is plagiarise?? just of curiosity...

Answer 1

Yes, it is. When you're changing the word, but keeping the content ("paraphrase"), you don't have to use quotation marks, but you still have to cite your source. Normally, that's done either in a footnote, or by an in-text-text citation that looks like this:

text text text text (Smith, 1999: p. 31).

In either case, you have to list all your sources in a bibliography at the end of the paper.

Teachers can tell if something is plagiarized because it doesn't sound natural, or because if you have information, it must come from somewhere, so if you don't give any source at all, clearly something is wrong, or simply because teachers know their subject and have read extensively, so they often recognize the material, even if it's been paraphrased.

Plagiarism is considered a very serious offense in academia, and you can get in lots of trouble for it.

Answer 2

Plagiarism is the unlawful use or imitation of the language and ideas of another author and representing his or her work as your own (wikipedia). Paraphrasing is okay if you do an in-paragraph citation--like the wikipedia citation I just did. If you want to use a direct quote you need to put quotes around everything from that other author and then in parentheses the author's last name and the page number from the book in which you found the quote. Online quotations are a little bit different, but if you google MLA quote formatting, you'll find a multitude of sites out there to help. As far as how your teachers can tell, firstly they've read samples of your work before, so they know your writing style. If it doesn't sound at all like you, they'll probably be suspicious. Also, there are websites like turnitin.com to which teachers can submit papers and the website can check the paper for any signs of plagiarism.

Answer 3

If you take someone else's idea and pass it off as your own, yes it is plagiarism. If you acknowledge it as a quote from another work with the proper footnotes, it is not.
Teachers don't always know for sure, but usually people who plagirize someone else's work are writing well above their own abilities. If a teacher suspects this, all they have to do is google the topic and chances are they will find the same works as you did.

Answer 4

You may be replacing the words with your own words, but since you are taking an original storyline, with original characters, etc. and simply replacing the words. That is plagirism.

If you are doing a parody, or such, for non-profit, then this is allowable. But you still must credit the original author!

If you are using this for commercial (earning money) uses, or giving not credit (saying it's yours, etc.) then it is plagirism, which is illegal.

You're better off just creating your own work.

And teachers know these thing. If I were to take The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien and plagirise it,they would know right away.

I don't know how they know, but they do ;-)

Answer 5

Sorry, pal, it's plagiarism.

If it is vastly different, like, you read, comprehended, and reorganized someone's thoughts into your own, while adding and changing to the original thoughts based on your own, and then write that down completely of your own mind, it is not plagiarism, and that's what you should be doing.

The teacher knows based on previous samples, if you've sucked before and suddenly wrote something halfway-intelligent, it's a good bet you've plagiarized.

Answer 6

You need to understand the concept of Plagiarism to answer this honestly. If you are using someones words for your own gain, then cite the source, and you are all set. If you are copying someone else's work, that is wrong, read their work, think about it, and write it yourself in your own words without looking at their work while writing your own.

Answer 7

If it is not your own thought and you don't acknowledge it, that is plagiarism. Your teacher may not always know when you plagisrise, just as a shopkeepr may not always know when someone is stealing from his store.

Answer 8

I think it would be ok if you rephrased the words, but maybe you could try changing around the sentences and stuff...the teacher could possibly find out by visiting the website where you got your information from.

Answer 9

Basiclly yes, but sometimes the teacher does not know. I recommend you to read the whole thing and summarise it.