To plagiarize, according to Longman's Language Activator, is "to copy words, ideas, etc. from a book, article etc. written by someone else, and use them in your own work, pretending that you thought of them" (p. 272).
Plagiarism is very much older than the Internet. However, the ease of accessing all types of material over the Internet has revived in educational institutions the concern that students may submit plagiarized work in their courses. Before the Internet was created, some students would plagiarize by manually copying from books or scholarly journals in the library. Since the mid-1990s, texts can be transferred directly from Internet sources to a student's paper. Clearly, the Internet has made it easier for students to plagiarize, but it has also made it easier for instructors to identify plagiarism cases.
The Student Code of Conduct of AUB includes cheating and plagiarism among the offenses judged to be academic misconduct. AUB faculty members have the responsibility of openly and thoroughly discussing plagiarism issues with their students and explaining the value of proper acknowledgment of other people's writings and ideas. The consequences of using plagiarized material should also be talked over, not only in relation to the immediate negative effect of breaking the university rules, but also in relation to the long-term effect on students' lives.
Plagiarism Information
The Plagiarism Test
Avoiding plagiarism is important -- both in writing and speaking. For this reason and because of the seriousness of plagiarism, ACC has created a test all students in the American University of Beirut are required to pass
Plagiarism for students and faculty
The Electronic Plagiarism webpages include a large variety of online resources for faculty members and students on the causes and sources of plagiarism as well as on tools to identify it and strategies to prevent it. With these resources, the Academic Computing Center (ACC) intends to contribute to AUB's campus-wide efforts to promote academic integrity in the University.
Plagiarism articles
A collection of credible articles about plagiarism and Turnitin
Turnitin in Moodle
ACC has integrated Turnitin uses directly into Moodle to facilitate plagiarism detection at AUB. This section offers instructions and useful information for both students and faculty
Copyright
AUB takes academic copyright very seriously and endeavors to disseminate information about the protection of intellectual property found on the web. This section on the website familiarizes the AUB Community with copyright laws relevant to the web
