Playbook: Plagiarism

Made by: Kelle Snow and Isabella Grandic

Edited by: Michael Raspuzzi, Hayley Caddes, Navid Nathoo, Alishba Imran, Steven ten Holder

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The intention of this playbook is to help you understand the difference between taking inspiration and plagiarizing work. It's important to identify these differences because plagiarism can lead to serious consequences.

"But I haven't plagiarized"

There is intentional plagiarism and unintentional plagiarism; you likely fall in the latter category. It's hard to keep track of all sources of where our ideas and projects come from. Whether it's a picture, analogy, quote, etc., we can all unintentionally plagiarize. Below are best practices to help you avoid plagiarizing.

What counts as plagiarizing?

There are 3 ways you can use someone else's work:

  1. Direct Quotation
  2. Summarizing
  3. Paraphrasing
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You must always cite your sources (including pictures and other material).
Watch this video for a more comprehensive overview.

Examples of Plagiarism

Copying something word-for-word (or close to it) and saying it's yours.

Example #1:

Using someone else's code for a project, then creating a video showing what "you" built. If it's not your code, do not make it seem like it's yours. You either must give credit to the person who wrote the code, or you should code the project yourself.

Example #2:

You use the same information from another source, but you don't mention where you got the information from. In the case below, it's important to cite where you got the information from and give credit to the original author.

Original
Original
Copied without credit given
Copied without credit given
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TL;DR: Don't use other people's work as your own. → Cite where the work is from. → Give credit to the original authors. → When in doubt, ask for permission.

The Consequences of Plagiarism

There are real-world repercussions.

Example: Suraj Raval lost his career for plagiarizing.

Suraj Raval, a popular YouTuber, lost his reputation by pretending other people's code was his own. You can watch this video for an analysis of his plagiarism. Once people called him out, he issued an apology. Following this, he went through a deep depression and lost a lot of trust from people in his network. His videos used to get 700k views, now they get 6-10k.

By plagerizing, you're sacrificing your personal development.

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Sacrificing authenticity
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Sacrificing the ability to think for yourself
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Sacrificing integrity
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Sacrificing community and network
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Sacrificing your life mission
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Sacrificing on your self-awareness and introspection

FAQ

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What are best practices for avoiding plagiarism? Ā 
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What are practices you should avoid?
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What about replicates? Isn't that plagiarism?