Though plagiarism is reprehensible (and punishable) in and of itself as an act of theft, it also offers no return to those who do it. If you take someone else's work and represent it as your own, you will

• think you've accomplished something when you haven't
• set yourself up for later humiliation if someone sees you as "expert" when you are not
• lose a valuable opportunity to take the material and extend it with your own ideas

I (at least) am not expert as catching incidences of plagiarism, but I have done so in the past and I hang around with quite a few experts. :-) Plus, I have seen plagiarism not only among students, but in the workplace as well. Academic faculty can lose tenured jobs for plagiarism; why shouldn't engineers in government and industry take this equally seriously?

One reason is that there isn't time for most instructors and managers to check ideas in detail to ensure that the ideas are original. If that's your case, you have to decide how important intellectual honesty is -- if there is a risk of real trouble down the road if you don't act, then you have to act. On the other hand, if there's no risk and intellectual honesty isn't really important, then concentrate on what is important.

Here are some warning signs of plagiarism in written work:

• A topic (or emphasis) change is made (or requested) at the last minute before the work is due.
• The work doesn't quite match the assignment.
• Preliminary drafts aren't turned in; reviews aren't conducted completely, or at all; references aren't made available.
• A later draft (or a final draft) has large discrepancies from previous versions.
• The writing style is unusual for the writer, or shifts in the middle of the work.

Here are some ways to document materials you use in your work:

• Direct quotation. Include the title, author, date, and journal or publisher.
• Paraphrase of direct quotation. Include the same material.

References

TCNJ Rhetoric Program -- click on "Plagiarism" for more info
http://www.plagiarism.com/
http://www.copernic.com/

1. If you suspect plagiarism in your workplace, check with your management. There may be a documented procedure for resolving it.
2. Use more and more detailed references than necessary. Even if some of the works you research turn out to be "blind alleys," they have value in that they show you which way not to go.
3. If you suspect plagiarism is a potential problem, structure project assignments and other tasks in such a way as to minimize the writer's opportunity to steal ideas. In my Rhetoric classes, I don't assign "research papers." Instead I assign "grant proposals" and/or "business plans" based on original ideas -- even if the ideas are fictional, at least they'll be the writers' own.