i got a short story assignemtn thing for an english class im taking and i was thinking of handing in a fanfiction i kinda started about one or two years ago (some one on this forum might remember it)

but when i asked my mom to read it over she told me it was plagerism because the world it was based in wasnt mine :/

You can't publish Fanfiction without permission.

If it isn't published, it's fine, because you aren't making money off of it. Obviously, most people put "written in the Elder Scrolls universe" to let the reader understand it, or it's on this forum in this section, which makes it generally accepted. Therefore credit is given.

But the point is, no money is being made, and if it is for school, give the people credit and it isn't plagiarism.

EDIT: Taking the Elder Scrolls universe and saying it is yours IS plagiarism. Just give them credit.

so i also have to mak a plot graph for the author section should i put the developers of morrowind o.0 ??

You really shouldnt consider using a fanfication in a body of work thats being graded, fanfictions are like mods -- as long as its non-profit and other such things its fine. Also consider taking more care when typing, could keep a few marks that way.

Also, If this doesnt clearly relate to TES fanfication or artwork, I would suggest you move it to Community Discussion.

http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_what_is_plagiarism.html

This is a pretty straight-forward explanation.

Here are a few disclaimers I've seen on fanfiction I've read:

Ok, I'll bite. I'm parrotting Woolymammoth a little, but this bears repeating.

There seems to be a huge amount of misinformation in online writing circles concerning the terms "plagiarism", "copyright" and "trademark". The names, characters and lands of TES are trademarks of Bethesda, and they own the copyright to the plots of their games. Thus if you take their characters/world/plot without their permission and use them to make a profit, you are violating their copyright and they may very legitimately sue you.

"Plagiarism" is taking someone else's words and either directly lifting or noticeably paraphrasing them, and claiming it is all your own work. It is not the same as violating copyright. I am so, so tired of people trotting out the "fanfiction is plagiarism!!" attack on fan-works (not that you are, I just see it a lot). You would only be plagiarising Bethesda if you created a land called Tamriel and lifted the text of The Real Barenziah word-for-word claiming you definitely, positively thought it up on your own.

Generally, companies turn a blind eye to fanworks, fanfiction included. It helps build a devoted and community-minded fan base, and it's never a good idea to alienate the people who love your games/books/movies/whatever by forbidding them to play in your world. In the vast majority of cases you would only be subjected to legal scrutiny if you attempted to make a profit from someone else's trademarked characters/world/plot. Therefore, turning in a piece of fanfiction as an English assignment is nothing to worry about, as long as - and this is very important - you indicated exactly which parts are yours and which are Bethesda's. There shouldn't really be any need to name individual developers because there is no way to sort out who wrote what, but something like this would probably suffice:

"The world of Tamriel, its concepts and characters [excluding by name any that are created by you yourself] are copyrighted to Bethesda Softworks and Zenimax Media Inc. No profit it being made from this text and no copyright infringement is intended."

Edit: Talaran beat me to it

I'll quickly add one addition to this as well. Your fanfiction, is it a direct retelling of the main plot of one of the games or an original plot set in the Elder Scrolls universe?

As an ex-English teacher, I wouldn't have had a problem with a student submitting an original plot set in that universe, as long as it was made very clear that was the case - ie, this was inspired by the game Morrowind, and set in the fictional universe Tamriel, created by Bethesda games etc etc. I would have had a problem with a retelling of in-game events, as that isn't derived from your imagination.

Simple solution, ask the relevant teacher if they would be prepared to accept a fanfiction as your submission, and make sure they understand which parts were derived from your imagination. They're under no obligation to accept it though, so be prepared to write something else.

Well my fanfict kinda is a retelling upto the point when the main character reaches balmara and then runs off with some guy instead

you can always change the names and description/shape of the places, names, and things that are from the real game. IE, make Vvardenfell a island far away from land called Poasnao or something and Make Vivec be called something else.

Not the best ie, but it'll work for a school assighnment.

well im allowed to have my story take place in this realm so long as the events are my own