What is Plagiarism?

Got this definition from wikipedia:

Plagiarism is the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work

Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud and offenders are subject to academic censure. In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination. Some individuals caught plagiarizing in academic or journalistic contexts claim that they plagiarized unintentionally, by failing to include quotations or give the appropriate citation.

The issue of plagiarism recently came up at work when one of our project leaders caught a writer copying text straight from a source text book. The writer had been directly copying (word by word) the text our reference materials. What made it even more disappointing was the fact that the writer was a former teacher from a distinguished university (to think that professors are strict with academic fraud).

The writer was immediately discharged from work. I was appointed to fix the documents she wrote. It was a challenge for me since I had to treat her documents as 100% copied from another source. I double checked each of her sentences and discovered that she copied them from different parts of the book. So the best thing I had to do was re-write the documents and para-phrase those topics that I could not understand (I was working under a deadline).

At least this is a strong reminder for me (and other writers) that plagiarism is really something that should be avoided.