Plagiarism, Are you guilty of it?

For most of my ministry I have given little thought to plagiarism.  I actually called a publishing house and asked if I could copy an outline from an Old Testament Commentary and they said; "sure no problem." It was not until Robyn and I wrote a couple of books and our material was used without crediting us that it really hit me.  Plagiarism has always been a problem in this world and also in the Christian world.  It has legal and ethical ramifications. Authors work hard and long on writing a book and editors do the same in making it fit for being published.  So please if you use the material credit the writer or preached.

From Matt Perlman 

From this point in the article the material is directly taken from
Matt Perlman.









The essence of plagiarism is to give the impression that the ideas or
 words of another person are actually your own. This can be done
 intentionally (in which case it is outright theft) or unintentional
 but either way it is wrong.





The tenth edition of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
 formally defines the term "plagiarize" from three different angles:

1. "To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own"
2. "To use (a created production) without crediting the source"
3. "To commit literary theft: present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source"
In a nutshell, you have committed plagiarism whenever you use another ideas or words without crediting or acknowledging the source

Committing Plagiarism 

 

We can spell this definition out more concretely. There are basically three ways in which plagiarism can be committed:
1. Quoting someone else word for word but not crediting them as the source.

2. Paraphrasing another's words without acknowledging the author whose words you are restating. In other words, if you do not quote the person verbatim but instead just change a few words and do not give credit, you have committed plagiarism.

3. Using the ideas of another without acknowledging their source. Hence, even if you state another person's ideas entirely in your own words, you still must credit them as the source of the ideas. The only exception is when the idea is well known and has become common knowledge. For example, if I state that "it is 93 million miles to the sun," I do not need to cite a source. It is common knowledge.

 

The Problem With Plagiarism

The central problem with plagiarism is twofold: (1) it is stealing; and (2) it bears false witness. Obviously, both of these are unacceptable for Bible-believing Christians (see Exodus 20:15; Mark 10:19; Matthew 15:19, etc). Stealing and bearing false witness fail to love your neighbor as yourself (Romans 13:9). The words and ideas of another person are precisely that—their words or ideas.
To fail to acknowledge their source is to give the false impression that they have originated with you. Hence, plagiarism steals from another and gives a false impression to your audience. Both of these factors should be of utmost concern to the Christian, and especially pastors and teachers who should have the utmost respect for the sanctity of truth.

Overcoming Plagiarism in Preaching and Teaching

1. It is not hard to avoid plagiarism. All that you have to do is acknowledge the source whenever you quote, paraphrase or use the ideas expressed by another. But, of course, life almost always throws us complex situations where it is not clear how to apply a general principle such as this. Hence, it will be helpful to spell out some specific guidelines.

 2. Detailed bibliographic data is not necessary. It is not necessary to give detailed information as to the page number, publisher of the book, date of publication and so forth when attributing a source in a sermon. It is helpful to do this in papers, but even then the absolutely necessary thing is to name the person from whom you got the idea or quote, and if possible the specific book or lecture or article.

3. Common knowledge does not need to have its source cited. "Common knowledge" does not necessarily mean that everyone in your audience knows the information. What is it then? The Purdue University English Department suggests helpful criteria. You have "common knowledge" when (1) "You find the same information undocumented in at least five other sources"; (2) "You think it is information that your readers will already know"; (3) "You think a person could easily find the information with general reference sources" (source). Hence, "Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703" is common knowledge. "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him" is not common knowledge.

4. If the original source simply cannot be found, it is acceptable to say "As someone has once said…" (Most sources, however, can be found. For online searches, www.google.com is indispensable. You might also try the new "Search Inside the Book"."