Avoiding Plagiarism

Dawson College Institutional Student Evaluation Policy (June 2023)

Plagiarism is a form of academic cheating. It is treated as a serious offence by teachers and by college and university deans, and it can lead to very serious penalties. As defined by the Institutional Student Evaluation Policy (ISEP) of Dawson College, plagiarism is “the presentation or submission by a student of another person’s work as his or her own.”

In some cases, plagiarism represents deliberate dishonesty and fraud. In other cases, it can result from a failure to understand research procedures. For example, some students commit plagiarism unintentionally when they include passages from sources in their own papers, but fail to cite them properly.

This overview has been reproduced from a handout created by the Dawson College Academic Skills Center. To learn more about plagiarism, and how to avoid it, download the entire handout: Plagiarism.