What is plagiarism? What are the consequences if I plagiarize?
Answer
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism occurs when you take another person’s words or ideas and claim them as your own.
Plagiarism includes:
- Buying a paper or copying someone else's work, and submitting it as your own work.
- Submitting a paper that you previously submitted in another course. This is called self-plagiarism.
- Copying and pasting from a source (e.g. a website, an article, an image, etc.) without citing it.
- Summarizing or rewording someone else's work without citing it.
- Building on someone else's idea without citing it.
What happens if I plagiarize?
Plagiarism is a serious academic offense, even if it’s unintentional or accidental.
At Red Deer Polytechnic, plagiarism can result in:
- Failing your assignment
- Failing your course
- Suspension from RDP
- Expulsion from RDP
- Not being accepted at another college or university after being expelled from RDP
As a Red Deer Polytechnic student, you are expected to read, analyze, and respond to the ideas of others when writing your papers. The key to doing this without plagiarizing is to cite your sources!
For more information, please see the Academic Integrity Guide or the citation guides:
