Tips on Avoiding the "Plagiarism Issue"

As you may know, we take plagiarism very seriously.  There's no reason you should be copying content from external sources and passing it off as your own, and we know you never would!  But there are some solutions that accidentally fall under the plagiarism umbrella.  This doesn't necessarily mean you plagiarized, it just means you may have tiptoed onto a copyright issue we'd like to avoid.  Below are some ways to avoid the notorious "plagiarism issue."

• Referencing proper nouns - This is an easy one to fall victim of.  Make sure to substitute any proper noun with an alias if you must include it.  For example, instead of writing a company name like Jeans for Juniors, write "The jeans company, which we'll refer to as Company A".  Do not abbreviate by using acronyms.
• Copying/scanning images - If your content manager has OK'd referencing graphs/diagrams, go right ahead.  Otherwise, please create your own graphs/diagrams when a problem calls for it.  We will consider scanned images from your textbook plagiarism, so please stay away from doing this.
• Quoting websites - Even if you put information in quotations, any information that you borrow from another source and put into your solution can constitute copyright infringement.  As a rule of thumb, it's never a good idea to quote anything.  Keep it original!

Alright authors, keep in mind that falling victim to the "plagiarism issue" is not limited to the criteria listed above.  If you're ever unsure whether or not a solution falls into the plagiarism category, please email your content manager with your issue and await further instruction.  Thanks!