What does plagiarism mean?
Word: Plagiarism
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Plagiarism means taking someone else's words, ideas or work and pretending they are your own.
Synonyms: cribbing, passing off
How do you spell plagiarism?
Syllables: pla - gia - rism
Tricky part: After the g comes i, then a: pla-gia. Students leave out the i (plagarism) or use an e (plagerism).
Watch out for: plagarism, plagerism, plagiarizm
Memory tip: A plagiarist claims 'I wrote it', so keep that I straight after the g.
Plagiarism in a sentence
Example 1: Our teacher explained that pasting a website's words into a project without saying where they came from is plagiarism.
Example 2: The writer lost the award when plagiarism was found in two of her chapters.
Example 3: Software can now check essays for plagiarism in seconds.
Fun Fact
English has used the word plagiarism since the early 1600s. It is not only about words: passing off someone's music, drawings or computer code as your own counts too.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
plagiarisim
a) a
b) s
c) m
d) i
Show answer
d) i. The ending is ism, as in tourism, with no vowel between the s and the m.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the word in the sentence and choose it:
The teacher spotted msirgialpa in three essays that were exactly alike.
a) paralysis
b) pragmatism
c) magnetism
d) plagiarism
Show answer
d) plagiarism. Copied essays point to plagiarism, and the letters agree: there is no t for pragmatism or magnetism and no y for paralysis.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word plagiarism as used in the sentence:
The magazine turned the story down because of plagiarism: half of it came from a famous novel.
a) copying
b) printing
c) editing
d) praising
Show answer
a) copying. Taking half a story from another writer's novel is copying.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. anthollogy 2. bibliografy 3. plagiarism 4. manuscrip
a) a handwritten or typed text before it is printed
b) a list of the books and sources used in a piece of work
c) a collection of poems or stories by different writers
d) presenting another person's work under your own name
Show answer
d) presenting another person's work under your own name. Bibliography ends in phy, manuscript has a t at the end and anthology only one l.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these is an example of plagiarism?
a) handing in a friend's essay as your own
b) borrowing a novel from the library
c) writing a story about your holiday
d) quoting a poet and naming the poet
Show answer
a) handing in a friend's essay as your own
2. To avoid plagiarism in a school project, you should ____.
a) write the project in pencil
b) use only one website
c) name every source you used
d) change the font of copied text
Show answer
c) name every source you used
