Plagiarism is using work written by someone else in your assignment without acknowledging where it came from.
Correctly acknowledging all sources of information is the foundation of academic integrity and honesty. It is important at every level of academic study and research.
Plagiarism applies to any material:
Written (including books, articles, websites)
Visual (including images)
Spoken, performance or any other medium
Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. It is a type of academic misconduct.
Plagiarism includes:
Quoting or direct copying of someone else’s work without acknowledgement
Paraphrasing (putting into your own words) someone else’s work without acknowledgement
Summarising someone elses work without acknowledgement
Re-using part of a previous marked assignment without approval from your lecturer
Letting another person help you by providing content for your assignment
Consequences for plagiarism at MIT, even if it is unintentional, can include:
You can find information more information on plagiarism and how to avoid it on the Academic Integrity page
Note that some MIT courses use Turnitin (via Canvas) to check assignments for plagiarism.
Always cite and reference your sources of information! Citation - The note you make within your assignment about where you got your information Reference - The full details of your source of information, put in a list at the end of your assignment
Make use of MIT’s referencing resources and recommended online information (see below)
Turnitin Draft Coach for MS Word (Online)Turnitin Draft Coach gives you access to Turnitin Similarity Reports , Citations Reports, and Grammar Guide right where you do your work directly in Microsoft Word on the web.