Child Study (McEntegart Library): Plagiarism

Why do you need to cite your sources?

• To give credit where credit is due
• To give credibility to your research
• To enable your readers to retrace your research steps
• To practice academic honesty and integrity 

When you plagiarize, you are...

• Doing something unethical
• Cheating yourself out of learning crucial critical and writing skills
• Failing to uphold the “Pledge of Academic Integrity”

You do not need to cite common knowledge. Something is common knowledge if it can be found in many different sources and is a well known fact.

Examples:

• Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit
• George Washington was the first President of the United States

How to Avoid Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism

Go through the tutorial Plagiarism tutorial from Academic Writer!  While the tutorial focuses on APA style citations, the tips on how to avoid & identify plagiarism can be applied to all citation styles.

Plagiarism

"The act of copying, stealing, or representing the ideas or words [images or sounds] of another as one's own, without giving credit to the source." (SJC Student Handbook)
Intentional Plagiarism

"The direct act of knowingly presenting another's words, creativity, research findings, or ideas as one's own in either exact or paraphrased form. In short, plagiarism in its most serious form involves falsely taking credit for someone else's thoughts and efforts."

• Copying someone else's research and turning it in as your own
• Buying a paper from a private or commercial source
• Copying out paragraphs or even sentences, of article or books and incorporating them into your own paper without documentation
• Lifting ideas or interpretations from other sources without acknowledgement
• Using a paper you submitted for one assignment for another assignment

Unintentional Plagiarism - occurs because of ignorance or carelessness.

"Presenting other's words, key ideas, or research findings without appropriate and complete acknowledgement. Various types of miss-attribution might be a matter of error or oversight, but failing to set quotation marks around a directly quoted excerpt from another's work or omitting a correct citation, whatever the intent, constitutes plagiarism."

• Forgetting to put quotation marks around a sentence

(APA Style of Documentation: A Pocket Guide, 2009, p. 4-5)

Four main ways of incorporating sources into your paper:

• Direct Quote: An exact, word-for-word excerpt from another's work set off by quotation marks ("quote") or in block quote format in your writing.
• Block Quote: An exactly quoted excerpt of more than 40 words.
• Paraphrase: To put source's words, ideas, and research into your own words.
• Summary: As a kind of comprehensive paraphrase, a summary briefly condenses another author's main points into an overview or synopsis.

Represent the original source accurately, and cite it carefully!!!

Definitions excerpted from "APA Style of Documentation: a Pocket Guide" by M. Pringle & J. Gonzales (2010)

"PLAGIARISM AND OTHER FORMS OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY"

The University expects students to observe academic integrity in all aspects of their academic life, including the conduct of their examinations, assignments, and research.  All members of the University community share the responsibility for creating a climate of academic integrity, based on fairness to others and respect for oneself.  Violations of academic integrity are treated very seriously.  Plagiarism (the act of copying, stealing or representing the ideas or words of another as one’s own without giving credit to the source), cheating on examinations, and all forms of academic dishonesty are forbidden.  Students found guilty of such behavior are subject to appropriate disciplinary actions, which may include a reduction in grade, a failure in the course, suspension, or expulsion.  

Instructors at St. Joseph’s University. NY routinely use plagiarism detection devices such as Turnitin, Safe Assign, and Google to uncover acts of plagiarism.

SJC Academic Policies