TYPES OF PLAGIARISM &

UNORIGINAL WORK

The following information was taken from

The Plagiarism Spectrum found at turnitin.com Click to Begin

#1 CLONE

Submitting someone else’s work, word-for-word,

as your own.

NextPrevious

From a survey of 900 secondary and higher education

instructors, on a scale of 1-10, cloning ranks 9.5 and is both

the most common and most severe type of plagiarism.

CLONE

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Frequency

NextPrevious

Cloning is intentional plagiarism and includes:

using a friend’s paper from a previous class,

purchasing a paper from a paper-mill,

downloading a paper you found online, and

other instances in which you turn in someone

else’s work, unaltered, and claim it as your own.

NextPrevious

#2 CTRL-C

Containing significant portions of text from a

single source with alterations.

NextPrevious

From a survey of 900 secondary and higher education

instructors, on a scale of 1-10, Ctrl-c ranks 8.9 and is the

second most common type of plagiarism.

CTRL-C

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Frequency

NextPrevious

Ctrl-c is a common process in which although you have

written some of the assignment and included your own

thoughts, there are still significant portions that match up

word-for-word to another person’s writing, without

citation. This occurs often when you cull “research” from

various sources, when in fact all you are doing is cutting-

and-pasting various sentences from various sources to

create paragraphs. Cutting-and-pasting should be

avoided.

NextPrevious

#3 FIND-REPLACE

Changing key words and phrases but retaining

the essential content of the source.

NextPrevious

From a survey of 900 secondary and higher education

instructors, on a scale of 1-10, find-replace ranks a 3.9 in terms

of frequency.

FIND-REPLACE

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Frequency

NextPrevious

Find-Replace occurs when you copy a sentence

from a source, but change a few key words to

alter it and attempt to make it your own. You may

think you have changed it enough, but in fact you

haven’t. The goal is to put the information entirely

in your own words, and then still cite the source if

necessary.

NextPrevious

#4 REMIX

Mixing paraphrased material from multiple

sources.

NextPrevious

From a survey of 900 secondary and higher education instructors,

on a scale of 1-10, remixing ranks a 5.6 in terms of frequency.

REMIX

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Frequency

NextPrevious

Remixing occurs when you attempt to

paraphrase multiple sentences from multiple

sources. This is similar to Find-Replace in your

attempt to alter the original information, but still,

if you use ideas that are not your own, and

information that is not your own, no matter how

much you changed the wording, you still need to

cite your sources.

NextPrevious

#5 RECYCLE

Borrowing generously from one’s previous work

without citation.

NextPrevious

From a survey of 900 secondary and higher education instructors,

on a scale of 1-10, recycling ranks a 5.5 in terms of frequency.

RECYCLE

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Frequency

NextPrevious

Recycling is a tricky type of plagiarism that is the cause of

much educational strife. Recycling occurs when you use your

own previous work for an assignment. Some professors allow

this and some do not. Always check with your professor as to

whether or not you may use previous work for a current

assignment. Some professors even have a policy mentioning

this in their syllabus. When in doubt, and when the professor

is unavailable, do new work. Professors give assignments

relevant to the topic at hand and usually they would like for

you to complete new work for that specific assignment.

NextPrevious

#6 HYBRID

Combining perfectly cited sources with copied

passages without citation.

NextPrevious

From a survey of 900 secondary and higher education instructors,

on a scale of 1-10, hybrid ranks a .5 in terms of frequency.

HYBRID

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

Frequency

NextPrevious

Hybrid occurs when you have some perfectly

cited sources with copied passages that aren’t

cited. It’s like trying to sneak in information

under the radar because you, 1) don’t remember

where it came from or, 2) don’t think that the

professor will notice because you’ve cited

everything else properly.

NextPrevious

#7 MASHUP

Mixing copied material from multiple sources.

NextPrevious

From a survey of 900 secondary and higher education instructors,

on a scale of 1-10, mashup ranks a 9.1 in terms of frequency.

MASHUP

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Frequency

Previous Next

Mashup occurs when you pull copied information from

multiple sources and mix them up together to create

sentences and paragraphs. This is similar to remixing,

but you haven’t attempted to paraphrase anything,

you’ve just copied it “as-is.” Keep this in mind: although

copying-and-pasting multiple sentences from multiple

sources and putting them together to create

paragraphs may seem tempting, you are still

plagiarizing.

Previous Next

#8 404 ERROR

Citing non-existent sources or including

inaccurate information about sources.

NextPrevious

From a survey of 900 secondary and higher education instructors,

on a scale of 1-10, 404 Error ranks a .6 in terms of frequency.

404 ERROR

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

Frequency

NextPrevious

404 Error, or File Not Found, is when you

attribute your information to a reference that

does not exist. This also happens when you

create a deliberate typo in an otherwise credible-

seeming source. This will only create frustration

on your professor’s part and show that you

knowingly and deliberately misled them.

NextPrevious

#9 RSS FEED

Including proper citation of sources but

containing almost no original work.

NextPrevious

From a survey of 900 secondary and higher education instructors,

on a scale of 1-10, RSS Feed ranks a 2.8 in terms of frequency.

RSS FEED

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

Frequency

NextPrevious

RSS Feed is seemingly harmless because you

took care to completely cite every single thing.

Keep in mind, even though you thought you did

everything correctly, there is almost no original

thought or writing in your work. A paper full of

someone else’s research, however properly cited,

is still not your own work.

NextPrevious

#10 RE-TWEET

Including proper citation but relying too closely

on the text’s original wording and/or structure.

NextPrevious

From a survey of 900 secondary and higher education instructors,

on a scale of 1-10, re-tweet ranks a 4.4 in terms of frequency.

RE-TWEET

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Frequency

NextPrevious

Re-tweeting is similar to RSS Feed but

instead of copying word-for-word, you have

made some attempt to paraphrase the

original source.

Beginning