A person plagiarizes when using the distinctive ideas or words of another without adequate acknowledgment.  To use the ideas and words of another as though they were your own is as dishonest in academic matters as forgery, embezzlement, or robbery are in financial matters.  In order to avoid plagiarism when borrowing what belongs to another, writers must indicate the source by footnote, and they must enclose any and all the distinctive words of the source within quotation marks.  Failure to acknowledge the use of someone else's material is a serious offense and the penalty is severe.

I.     Quotations

        Any quotations--however brief--must be placed in quotation marks or in longer passages clearly identified by indenting beyond the regular margins.  A quotation must be accompanied by a footnote which precisely indicates the original source.

II.    Paraphrasing

        Any material which is paraphrased or summarized must also be specifically acknowledged in a footnote.  A thorough rewording or rearrangement of an author=s text does not relieve one of this responsibility.  Occasionally students claim that they have read a source long before they wrote their papers and have unwittingly duplicated some of its phrases or ideas.  This is not a valid excuse.  The student is responsible for taking adequate notes so that debts of phrasing may be acknowledged where they are due.

III.   Footnotes

        Footnote numbers should be placed after the borrowed material in the text and should be numbered consecutively throughout the paper.  The notes may be placed either at the bottom of the page or at the end of the paper depending on the preference of the instructor.  When citing a published source, the footnote should identify the author, title, place and date of publication, volume (where relevant), and page numbers.

IV.    Bibliography

         All sources which have been consulted in the preparation of an essay or report should be listed in a bibliography, unless the instructor requests that only works cited in footnotes be included.  The mere listing of a source in a bibliography, however, shall not be considered a proper acknowledgment for specific use of that source within the essay or report.

V. Book Reviews

      In writing a book review the student is under the same obligation to place quotation marks around any distinctive words or phrases that appear in the book itself.  The reviewer is not at liberty to use such words or phrases from the book under the assumption that the instructor should know that they are from the book.

VI.   Multiple Submission

        Under certain conditions, and with the permission of the instructors involved, the student may be permitted to rewrite an earlier work or to satisfy two academic requirements by producing a single piece of work, more extensive than that which would satisfy either requirement on its own.  If the student has revised an earlier essay, the earlier essay must be submitted with the final version.  If a single extended essay has been written for more than one course, the fact must be clearly indicated at the beginning of the essay.

 In November 1967 the Journal of Mississippi History published an article, large parts of which had been plagiarized from an M.A. thesis written at Emory University.  The one time the author of the article cited the thesis in a footnote; he stated that he had "relied heavily" on the thesis.  That footnote did not adequately indicate how extensively he had taken material from the thesis.

Sentence as in Article

General Wilkinson occupied the town and fort and began to strengthen the fortifications and to organize a garrison for the protection of the town and the Gulf Coast.

---He seems to have been expected to cooperate with and to aid the federal Indian agents in administering federal Indian policy.  He was also responsible for punishing the Indians and whites who defied the laws.  As superintendent of Indian Affairs, he faced three fundamental problems which concerned the acquisition of Indian lands, the sale of liquor to Indians, and white squatters on Indian lands.

Sentence as in Thesis

---Wilkinson occupied the town and fort and immediately began to strengthen the fortifications and to organize a garrison for the protection of the town as well as that area of the Gulf Coast.

---Not only was he to cooperate with and to aid the federal agents in adapting and administering the federal Indian policy in the Territory, but he was also responsible for punishing those Indians and whites who defied laws of Indian policy.  As Superintendent of Indian Affairs within the territory Holmes faced three important problems:  the acquisition of Indian lands, sale of liquor to the Indians, and squatters on Indian lands.