The University of Toronto treats plagiarism as a violation of the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. Plagiarism is a serious form of cheating in which a student makes use of someone else’s ideas or words without giving appropriate attribution. In your academic work, plagiarism usually occurs in one of three ways:
- You cut and paste a piece of someone else’s text or code or figure but do not clearly show what the source is for that material.
- You hand in work done by others (e.g. teammates) without putting their names on the work.
- You re-phrase someone else’s idea into your own words, but do not give credit to the source of the idea.
The University takes cheating very seriously. Penalties can include zero on the assignment, zero in the course, annotations on your transcript (which would be seen by a potential graduate school or employer), or in extreme cases expulsion from the University. If you are concerned about your use of sources, discuss your concerns with your Course Instructor before submitting a document for assessment.