A Little Something to Remember: The Importance of Academic Integrity

Recently, a BBC Brasil reporter revealed that a news photographer had been plagiarizing his photographs. Instead of taking his own photos of war zones, he took existing photos and altered them just enough to avoid being recognized. This isn't the first time a plagiarism scandal has been exposed in the media, but it helps to remind us that plagiarism isn't an issue confined to college-level writing.



While this specific case is an example of overt plagiarism, many academic writers struggle with passive or accidental plagiarism. One missed citation, one unclear citation, or even a series of pieced together paraphrases can create an issue related to academic integrity. To avoid such a situation, it can be helpful to review ways to avoid passive plagiarism.

The Walden University Writing Center has several resources to help writers understand why academic integrity is important and how to stay out of situations that might lead to unintentional plagiarism:

Avoiding unintentional plagiarism blog post
Patchwork paraphrasing blog post
Plagiarism prevention resource kit
Plagiarism prevention modules
The three components to avoiding plagiarism webinar




Never miss a new post; Opt-out at any time