The first time (that I know of) I was plagiarized was in college. Someone had copied and pasted at least three of my sentences on an online message board where we were to post weekly thoughts about our assigned material. Now, these weren’t commonly worded sentences, so it wasn’t coincidental—I knew I had been plagiarized. My professor didn’t think there was enough evidence, however, and nothing was done about it. The student apparently failed the class, so there was some justice, but she could have been suspended—that’s how seriously universities take plagiarism.
The government takes it even more seriously. According to plagiarism.org, “Most cases of plagiarism are considered misdemeanors, punishable by fines of anywhere between $100 and $50,000—and up to one year in jail.” But that’s not all. “Plagiarism can also be considered a felony under certain state and federal laws. For example, if a plagiarist copies and earns more than $2,500 from copyrighted material, he or she may face up to $250,000 in fines and up to ten years in jail” (iParadigms 2014).
If you are referencing or quoting material that was not created by you, you need to cite it. You can’t copy and paste a paragraph from Wikipedia without citing it. You can’t reproduce an entire speech without citing it. You can’t reference a statistic without citing it. You can’t quote this article without citing it. The problem for most writers is that they don’t know how to cite properly, but to be blunt, that’s no excuse. If you’re planning to write professionally, you need to learn to write responsibly or prepare to be held accountable. Citing properly is actually quite easy—that’s why plagiarism is such an amateurish offense.
The most common style guides for citations are APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and CMS (Chicago Manual of Style). They’re all readily available online, and they all make use of the same basic information—author, title of the work, publisher, publication date, page number (for print), and access date (for web)—the difference being how this information is presented. I practically had to memorize the MLA style guide while pursing my English degree, so that’s my preference, but the CMS is the preferred style guide of most publishing houses. Your editor will have access to one or more of these and can help you with the citations too, but it’s your job to record your sources thoroughly before coming to your editor.
Lastly, a note on ethics. Words are a writer’s pride, identity, and livelihood. When you plagiarize another writer’s words, you’re not borrowing; you’re stealing. Further, you’re committing fraud by deceiving your audience, an ultimate breach of trust.
See my article “Can I Use Song Lyrics in My Book?” for more information on citing lyrics, and see my article “Quotation Marks vs. Italics” to know which to use correctly when citing!
Works Cited
iParadigms. “FAQ.” Accessed June 1, 2016. http://www.plagiarism.org/ask-the-experts/faq.