Q&A for How to Cope with Having Accidentally Plagiarized

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My friend showed me a recipe for dog cupcakes and I asked her if I could upload them to wikiHow, and she said yes. Then I found out it was copied from a website. What do I do?

MusicIsEverywhere

Community Answer

Provide a link to the website to show your readers the original source, and make it clear that this recipe is not your original work.

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What if something is common knowledge, and all the sources phrase it the same way and you phrase it the that way because that's how you would have done in the first place and the teacher says it's plagiarism?

MusicIsEverywhere

Community Answer

Anything that is common knowledge does not need to be cited, because it is not the source's author's own material, but rather facts that are collectively known by many people.

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What if I come up with an idea that wasn't subconsciously copied, yet the same point was made by someone else without me knowing? Should I look up every idea I have that I think is original?

MusicIsEverywhere

Community Answer

Anything that you come up with is your own, so does not need citing, even if someone else happened to come up with it independently of you. For instance, Dennis the Menace was created by two independent, different authors by coincidence.

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What if you write the source you got it from?

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It's not enough to say, "I got this from source X." Usually, there is a given format of citation your teacher asks you to use.

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I accidentally plagiarized and as a result, I got 0 on a paper worth 25% of my grade. I was at an A, but now my best possible final grade will be a C. What should I do?

MusicIsEverywhere

Community Answer

Talk to your teacher. Apologize for the accidental plagiarism, and ask if you can redo the paper. If your teacher won't let you, do your best with the rest of the course and accept the C. It's unfortunate that you've suffered such a huge drop in your grade, but at least it's still a pass. At the very least, get thorough feedback on why it was thought you'd plagiarized and ask for advice on avoiding this from happening in future.

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Wow, I looked this up because apparently I somehow plagiarized from two different websites, which probably weren't listed on Google, feels bad man. This isn't even ignorance, it was simply a coincidence.

MusicIsEverywhere

Community Answer

Information that is available on various different websites is probably common knowledge. If this was something that you already knew before you looked it up on these websites, it is highly likely to be something many people already know about.

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Is it alright if I take some lyrics from an old TV show from the 1970s or so but put it in my own words and claim it as my own or will I still be caught with plagiarism?

MusicIsEverywhere

Community Answer

If you use any lyrics from any song from any time, you need to cite the song and the source from where you heard the song.

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My teacher marked down my assignment by 25% because she thinks I plagiarized. This was an assignment we did not need to cite because she gave us the info in class. I never plagiarized and I don't know what to do.

Community Answer

Perhaps your teacher expects you to cite her when you use information she gave you. Ask her about that.

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I'm curious, what if you plagiarized by accident, and the professor went over it before turning it in and said it was good. Then once you turn it in and you have been convicted of plagiarizing, what happens?

Community Answer

If you're honest, the professor might thank you for your honesty. However, you will have to rewrite it using your own words.

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