Students taking courses in the Department of History are expected to abide by the Honor Code and its standards of academic honesty.
One of the most important issues that history majors must deal with is plagiarism. Below we properly cite a useful definition of plagiarism from the Modern Language Association. There should be some discussion of plagiarism in every history class you take at UF. For a fuller discussion of this topic, see the very useful website put together by the American Historical Association.
The MLA Handbook defines plagiarism as the use of another
person's ideas or expressions in your writing without giving proper credit
to the source. The word comes from the Latin word plagiarius ("kidnapper"),
and Alexander Lindey defines it as "the false assumption of authorship:
the wrongful act of taking the product of another person's mind, and presenting
it as one's own" (Plagiarism and Originality [New York: Harper,
1952] 2).
"In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you have written
or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from someone else."
This can include paraphrasing, copying someone else's writing word for word,
or using ideas that aren't your own without proper citation. Plagiarism is
often unintentional, and bad research habits can form early in elementary
school. Unfortunately, these bad habits can continue throughout high school
and college and may result in severe consequences, from failure in a course
to expulsion. To avoid these consequences, always cite your sources if you
are unsure if you are plagiarizing (Joseph Gibaldi and Walter S. Achtert,
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (3rd ed. New York: The
Modern Language Association of America, 1988), pp. 21-25).
Academic Honesty
