Defining Plagiarism

Defining Plagiarism
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Introduction
Simply put, plagiarism can be defined as intellectual theft. Plagiarism encompasses one or all of the following scenarios; to use and present another researcher’s or author’s ideas as one’s own without giving credit, using another researchers production without credit, engaging in literary theft, and molding and presenting ‘new’ idea that is derived from an already existing source. To avoid plagiarism students should conduct thorough research and clearly distinguish one’s ideas from those borrowed from other scholars. In essence, one can either paraphrase other’s ideas and put them down as understood or use quotes for direct citation of other people’s work; within the text and through the use of footnotes and reference page.
Analysis of plagiarism Case Excerpt
Case (a) can be considered a plagiarized text since it contains the exact words from the article without giving credit to the author of the article. The words “As of March 2012, hydraulic fracturing has been applied to more than one million wells nationwide”( Congressional Digest, 2012). These words should have been enclosed in quotations and cited with the author’s name.
Case (b) is considered a case of close plagiarism since the ideas are paraphrased and presented as if they are original without giving credit to the author of the article. This excerpt required in-text referencing to avoid plagiarism.
Case (c) is not a case of plagiarism. This is so since the excerpt is cited correctly to give credit to the author of the article.

Aside from that, the excerpt begins as “according to the Congressional digest…” to indicate clearly that the ideas are borrowed.
Conclusion
In Herzing University’s academic integrity policy, it is stated categorically that the institution shuns all levels of academic dishonesty; including but not limited to cases of plagiarism. The University issues that any students caught with the charge of plagiarism will receive a fail in the assignment or fail in the course as will be judged by the instructor. Also, the school keeps a written warning in the student’s academic file since a second warning might amount to one’s expulsion.
References
An issue of Congressional Digest. March 1, 2012. “Hydraulic Fracturing Overview: Growing of the Process and safe drinking water concerns.”