Plagiarism is an Issue of Ethics, Not Correctness

I have worked under or alongside many different English instructors in a variety of capacities, and something that has always bothered me about the teachings of a select few writing instructors is the promotion of the idea that plagiarism is more about correctness than ethics. Not all instructors teach this, but there are certainly a handful. They might not outright say this, but the way that they teach students about plagiarism sends the message that plagiarism is all about correctness: i.e., about getting every single element of the formatting correct. 

Here is an example of what this might look like. The teacher won’t talk about the ethics of plagiarism, but they might instead tell students that it is vitally important that every single citation has the correct format, down to the very last period. These teachers will give the impression that if the students don’t do this, they will essentially be committing plagiarism. This idea—that a missing period could equate to plagiarism—is actually very false. Let’s talk about why. 

What is plagiarism? 

First, what does plagiarism mean? Let’s look at the definition of plagiarism. Plagiarism occurs when one writer takes credit or seems to take credit for another person’s ideas or words. A writer guilty of plagiarizing will have written another person’s ideas or words into their own writing in a way that makes the original source of those words or ideas unclear to readers or in a way that completely disregards the original source, failing to mention it. 

What are citations? 

What is the best way to avoid plagiarism? Writers can avoid plagiarism by citing their sources (this is also called documenting or referencing sources). When a writer includes citations, they provide information about their sources that shows readers who/what the source is and where it can be found. 

What is a citation style? 

A citation style, which is also called a documentation style or a referencing style, is a set of stylistic (or formatting) guidelines writers can follow to create consistent, easy-to-follow, and easy-to-understand citations. When a writer follows a style guide, they will be able to create consistent documentation that includes all essential information about their sources. Popular citation styles in the US include APA (the style guide written by the American Psychological Association, which is used in academia), MLA (the guide created by the Modern language Association, also used in academia), CMS (the Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press and used widely in publishing), and AP (published by the American Press and used widely in journalism). 

The information provided in citations helps readers understand and locate the writer’s sources. Here is an example of an APA in-text citation citation: 

• According to Laura Bates (2021), “We do not use the word terrorism when describing a crime of mass murder committed by a white man with the explicit intention of creating terror and spreading hatred against a specific demographic group—even though that is the definition of terrorism—if the demographic in question is women” (p. xv).

This citation, included within the document, gives readers a few pieces of information about the source, namely: the author, the publication year, and the page number on which the quote can be found. The use of quotation marks shows readers that the words contained within the marks are the author’s exact words. In an APA research paper, this in-text citation would correspond with a reference entry containing even more information about the source; this reference entry would be found at the end of the document: 

• Bates, L. (2021). Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists: The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How it Affects Us All. Sourcebooks. (Original work published 2020)

APA documentation style is just one of many documentation styles used by writers around the world. Different fields of study, different professions, and different places in the world have different style guides because each style guide emphasizes the importance of certain information over other information and prioritizes specific stylistic elements over others. For example, APA documentation, which comes from the American Psychological Association, is often used in the sciences. One reason for this is because this style guide emphasizes the importance of the year of publication, as most scientific fields are concerned with having the most up-to-date scientific information. By making sure that readers always have access to the year of publication of the sources referenced, APA documentation helps readers understand how recently the scientific sources being referred to were published, which will help those readers to better understand the limitations of any sources referred to. 

Most citation guides try to get writers to include information about who (who created the source), what (what the source is called), when (when the source was created or published), and where (where the source is located / can be found).

College instructors usually require their students to use and follow specific documentation styles. This makes it easy for those instructors to see which sources their students have used and how well their students have attributed ideas and words to those sources. This also gives students an opportunity to learn how to adhere to a citation guide. 

You don’t always have to use a style guide to give others credit for their words and ideas, though. If you aren’t required to use a certain citation style, you could make up your own method of citing your sources! As long as you make it clear when you are referring to someone else’s words/ideas, showing your readers where those words/ideas came from, you won’t be plagiarizing. 

Plagiarism examples

What are examples of plagiarism? Take a look at some examples below!

First, here is a paragraph pasted from a Slate article written by Vanessa Zoltan on November 07, 2022 titled, “Don’t Just Write a Novel This November. Write a Bad Novel”: 

Here are some examples of plagiarism using this selection of writing: 

• Capitalism informs us that anything we do must be productive. ←If I use the first sentence from Zoltan’s article, and I change just a few words but keep the same basic structure, and I don’t even attempt to show readers where this sentence first came from, I am committing plagiarism. 

• In her article, Zoltan writes that capitalism tells us that everything we do has to be productive. ←In this sentence, I tell my readers that the idea about capitalism comes from Zoltan. However, I use Zoltan’s exact words, and I don’t show readers that those words are hers and not mine. Because of this, I seem to be taking credit for her words, which means I am plagiarizing. Even though I am accidentally plagiarizing here, the content of my writing still creates a case a plagiarism.

These are just a couple of examples of plagiarism. 

Formatting mistakes do not always equate to plagiarism

Despite what some teachers might make you think, making a typo within an in-text citation or reference entry does not equate to plagiarism. Even larger formatting mistakes within the documentation aren’t necessarily tantamount to plagiarism. If you have taken pains to show your readers 1) that your ideas and/or words come from somewhere else, 2) to whom your ideas and/or words belong, and 3) to where those ideas and/or words can be found (it isn’t always necessary to include this information), then you have not plagiarized. 

Even style guides emphasize this; for example, APA says the following on their website: “Usually, using incorrect citations (e.g., misspelling an author’s name, forgetting or mistyping an element in a reference list entry, or citing a source in the text that does not have a corresponding reference list entry) is not considered plagiarism if the error is minor and attributable to an editorial oversight rather than an intentional attempt to steal someone’s ideas.”

Think about my APA in-text citation example up above. What if there were a couple of formatting errors in this in-text citation? Take a look:

• According to Laura Bates 2021), “We do not use the word terrorism when describing a crime of mass murder committed by a white man with the explicit intention of creating terror and spreading hatred against a specific demographic group—even though that is the definition of terrorism—if the demographic in question is women” (p xv).

While the formatting errors might be distracting to some readers, readers can still clearly tell that I am attributing Bates’ words and ideas to her; I do not seem to claim that those words or ideas are mine, so I am not plagiarizing. I am merely guilty of making some stylistic errors.

A citation format is meant 1) to create a consistent style, 2) to show readers when you’ve used someone else’s words or ideas, and 3) to help readers begin to understand and to locate your sources. While following formatting rules closely will help with all three of these objectives, minor mistakes aren’t typically tantamount to plagiarism. 

However, there can be times when typos or larger mistakes do cross over into plagiarism territory. For example, if you forget to put quotation marks around a string of words that you lifted, verbatim, from another source, then your readers will think you came up with those words, even if you include a citation. Consider the example from above:  

• In her article, Zoltan writes that capitalism tells us that everything we do has to be productive. ←Remember that the words about capitalism come directly from Zoltan, but this sentence makes it seem like I generated these words myself, as I don’t include quotation marks or any other indicators that those words are hers and not mine. 

To show readers that the words about capitalism are Zoltan’s words and not mine, I need to 1) use quotation marks (or some other indicator) or 2) to paraphrase Zoltan’s idea into my own words, like this: 

• In her article, Zoltan writes, “Capitalism tells us that everything we do has to be productive.”

• In her article, Zoltan talks about how capitalism promotes productivity to the point that people believe every task they perform, even non-work-related tasks, need to be productive and yield some sort of return. 

Most citation styles are flexible

Most style guides are very flexible and tell readers, up front, that there might be multiple ways to cite the single source. Most style guides also include core requirements for what citations should include, and they recognize that the diversity of sources students use might mean that figuring out the perfect way to cite a source might not always be clear—in fact, a “perfect way” might not even exist! Some style guides give writers discretion for applying rules, and some style guides have guidelines/suggestions rather than rigid rules. Take, for example, the 9th edition of MLA, which states, “Since texts have become increasingly digital, and the same document may often be found in several different sources, following a set of rigid rules no longer suffices.Thus, the current [MLA documentation] system is based on a few guiding principles, rather than an extensive list of specific rules.” This most recent edition of MLA does have core requirements for what should be included in works cited entries (works cited entries are the entries at the of the document containing all crucial information about the sources), but writers are given flexibility regarding how to format those entries. 

When I used to work with college students, I came across many students who felt extremely flustered because they were so concerned with the minutiae of citations. They felt that citations were very rigid and that if they left out one element—like a period or parenthesis—they would be committing plagiarism. 

Formatting errors do not usually amount to plagiarism. Intentionally or unintentionally taking credit for someone else’s words or ideas is what causes plagiarism. So… why is plagiarism wrong? 

Why is plagiarism bad? 

Rules against plagiarism are first and foremost about ethics, and I wish this was something that more writing teachers would emphasize to their students. Plagiarism is wrong because it is essentially stealing and it can be exploitative and misleading. When you intentionally or unintentionally claim someone else’s ideas or words as your own, you are depriving them of credit while reaping all the rewards for the ideas/words for yourself. Essentially, you are profiting off of the work of others when you plagiarize.

Additionally, when you plagiarize, you aren’t giving your readers a chance to explore the original source of your words/ideas or to follow the way that your knowledge has built on the knowledge of others. 

Having clear threads of attribution between ideas/words and their sources throughout our society can give us a better understanding of how certain knowledge in our society evolves, and this is useful to everyone. 

Some people believe that plagiarism isn’t bad, for various reasons. Most of these reasons involve not only writing (the creation of word content) but the creation of various other things. Some people argue that 1) nothing is truly “original” and everything is remixed or recycled, 2) efforts to stop “stealing” of ideas (including copyrights) inhibit creativity, 3) it’s easy for people to internalize other people’s ideas to the point that they feel those ideas are their own, and 4) parallel independent creation (also known as simultaneous invention or multiple discovery), the phenomenon where multiple people or parties create similar ideas or works independently of one another, can and does happen. The list goes on. While some of these ideas do have some merit, I vehemently disagree that plagiarism should ever be viewed fondly and firmly advocate that all writers should take pains to avoid plagiarism, beginning when they are students. 

Plagiarism is unethical outside of college, too

Other writers beyond college should continue to be concerned with the ethics of plagiarism for the rest of their writing careers, making sure that readers know when they have lifted ideas or used words of other writers. Providing the sources of your words and ideas is the ethical thing to do. 

What do you think? What does plagiarism mean to you, and what do you think about plagiarism? Do you think plagiarism is unethical, or do you think there are cases where it isn’t? I’d love to hear your thoughts!