In this scenario, you used a translation tool to help you write a report. In doing so, you submitted work that used translated ideas from a source written by someone else and you did not give credit to the original authors.
How is this a Breach of Academic Integrity?
Even though your report included all the points you wished to make, these ideas came from someone else and so they require a reference. As a result, you committed a breach of academic integrity: plagiarism.
According to Sheridan's Academic Integrity Policy (2016), some ways that students plagiarize is by “copying another person’s words without the use of quotation marks and appropriate references to signify that these are excerpts from someone else’s work” and “presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging that person” (p. 5).
Turnitin is a type of plagiarism-detection software that many professors at Sheridan ask students to use before submitting their work for grading. When students submit their essays to Turnitin, it automatically checks the work for text that is the same as other sources such as material on the Internet, articles and other submitted student work. Turnitin detects Google translate by translating text from another language into English and comparing it to information in its database. Turnitin’s automatic translation system detects plagiarized material that has been translated from another language into English.
The Truth about Translation Tools
Plagiarism from a translation tool is harder to detect using a tool such as Turnitin, but your professor is still likely to know that these words and ideas are not your own. Translation tools produce writing that is flawed and at times hard to understand because they provide a word-for-word translation, and as a result, you cannot depend on this tool for proper wording, grammar or sentence structure.
Other Examples of Using Unauthorized Tools
Using a paraphrasing tool, such as Grammarly to paraphrase and re-write someone else’s work and then submitting the final result.
Bringing a digital translation dictionary to a test or exam (or any other unauthorized tool), unless your professor tells you it is okay to do so.
Changing every few words of someone’s work and submitting the resulting work as your own. This is considered plagiarism.