Deciding what is and what isn’t plagiarism is difficult. Webster’s dictionary provides the following definition.

Plagiarize \'pla-je-,riz also j - -\ vb -rized; -riz•ing vt [plagiary] : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (a created production) without crediting the source vi: to commit literary theft: present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source - pla•gia•riz•er n

FROM: Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary 9th ed, (Springfield, Ma: Merriam 1981, p. 870).

However, identifying and avoiding plagiarism is not as easy as this definition makes it seem. Most would agree that simply copying from another’s work without attributing the source is wrong. But what about re-phrasing an idea? What about using another researcher’s findings to support your own work?

Citations are designed to indicate which ideas are your own and which belong to others. Readers should easily be able to understand the difference between these. In addition, references provide readers with a “road map” so that they might understand what you are anchoring your research and conclusion in.

The sample quotations provided in this module are from texts commonly cited in public administration research. In the following examples, an excerpt of an original work will be shown, below it will be the sample of the work to be analyzed for plagiarism, and the Biography of the work cited. In each instance, the student should chose the most appropriate response to the question, “Is this Plagiarism”