5. Why is plagiarism unacceptable?

Plagiarism is theft: if you don’t reference your sources, you are presenting the ideas and words as your own, and this is considered theft under copyright law. Using someone else’s ideas or words without acknowledgement means stealing their intellectual property.

Plagiarism also breaks academic codes of conduct: acknowledging sources is a key feature of academic culture because it gives recognition to the research and scholarship of others. This is how academics establish a reputation.

Plagiarism is unethical. Students who plagiarise take shortcuts. This means that they are not developing an important quality that the University of Canberra wants to promote in its students: taking the care and time to properly acknowledge the influence of others in their academic writing.

Most importantly, plagiarism prevents you from learning. If you simply copy the words of the source texts, you will be missing out on vital opportunities to learn. In order to use references appropriately by paraphrasing, summarising or quoting from your sources, you have to understand and learn from these sources.

Quiz Section

	Plagiarism is wrong only if I mean to pass the words off as my own.

	Plagiarism is unacceptable because it:  stops me from learning  breaks academic rules  is dishonest and fraudulent  all of the above