Understanding and Preventing Plagiarism
"[...]
presenting someone else’s work, including the work of other
students, as one’s own. Any ideas or materials taken from another
source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged,
unless the information is common knowledge. What is considered 'common
knowledge' may differ from course to course" (Part II: Student
Responsibilities, Section 3). "
Plagiarism is
taking someone else's words and ideas and presenting them as your own
without giving credit to the source. This means that all work you
submit in your classes must be your own work, and that all sources that
you used in your work must be documented and acknowledged.
Plagiarism is a serious offense with severe consequences. You
could receive an F for your assignment or fail the course
altogether. Make certain that you are familiar with the
University’s policy on plagiarism and academic integrity and understand what it means.
Part of being a
member of anacademic community involves following the rules and
conventions that govern it. Using information accurately and
ethically demonstrates that you are aware of the codes of the culture
of academia. The documentation of information sources serves the
purpose of providing credibility, reliability, and accuracy to your
work. It is not wrong to use the ideas or information of others
in your research. Most research papers require the use of outside
sources to build an argument or present and informed perspective.
What is wrong, however, is to use these ideas without documenting the
fact that you got them from somewhere else.
Plagiarism can happen even if you do not intend to plagiarize. In order to avoid plagiarism, you should:
- Keep track of what information sources you use and what
information you took from them. For example, if you copy
down a quotation in your
- Be wary of copying and pasting text from electronic
sources. While this is a quick and easy way to get the words
exactly right for a quotation, it is also easy to forget to document
the source of this text.
- Use in-text citations in your paper followed by a bibliography at
the end of your paper, depending on the documentation style specified
by your instructor. Consult a style manual for instructions
on how to use MLA, APA, or Chicago style documentation.
- For help with documentation styles, you can seek assistance from the IUS Writing Help Center, or contact a reference librarian. In addition, The Purdue OWL
is a useful online resource that provides an overview of APA and MLA
styles. Click on "Research and Citation" on the left side of the
page to find links that explain APA and MLA formatting and
documentation.
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