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Plagiarism Your “paper is a collaboration between you and your sources. To be fair and ethical, you must acknowledge your debt to the writers of those sources. If you don't, you are guilty of plagiarism, a serious academic offence“ (Hacker, 2003, p. 383).

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What is Plagiarism?

“Plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source” (Council of Writing, p. 1).

Often “plagiarism result[s] from honest confusion over the standards of academic discourse and proper citation” (Wilhoit, 1994, ¶ 2).

“Plagiarism covers a multitude of errors, ranging from sloppy documentation to outright, premeditated fraud” (Wilhoit, 1994, ¶ 10).

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Instances of Plagiarism

“Buying a paper from a research service” Submitting someone else’s work Having someone else write your paper “Copying… text without proper acknowledgement” “Paraphrasing…text without appropriate documentation” Quoting without appropriate documentation Borrowing language or ideas without giving credit to the

source

(Wilhoit, 1994, ¶ 4 - 10)

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Appropriate Documentation

You must document all sources: books, articles, newspapers, web sites, databases, radio or TV broadcasts, interviews, speeches, personal correspondence, interviews, etc.

You do not need to document widely known information or common knowledge about events, people, or places. However, when in doubt, provide documentation.

If you summarize or paraphrase, you must cite the name of the author and date of publication.

If you quote, you must cite the name of the author, date of publication, and page number (for an electronic source cite the paragraph, e.g. Jones, 2000, para. 2).Don’t forget to begin and end your quote with quotation marks.

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Strategies to Avoid Plagiarism

“Review the conventions of quoting and documenting

material” (Wilhoit, 1994, What Can We Do section, ¶ 6)

Learn “proper note-taking skills” to keep track of your sources of information (Wilhoit, What Can We Do section, ¶ 5)

Print “a copy of the first page of Web-referenced works” (Vernon, Bigna, & Smith, 2001, p. 194)

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Resources I Cambridge College’s APA handout

Hardcopies are available through the Cambridge College Student Academic Support Center Center.

To download a copy, go to Cambridge College’s website http://www.cambridgecollege.eduClick on Student Services > Academic Support > Writing Citations According to APA

American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author.

APA Style.org http://www.apastyle.org/

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Resources II

The Academic Support Center at Cambridge College has reference texts; handouts; sample ILPs, IRPs, and Capstones. Tutors are available to

guide you through all stages of the writing and research process

help you learn how to document your sources properly

Free writing support is available at our Cambridge, Springfield, and Lawrence sites.

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Other Resources

Hacker offers a web site accompanying her book A Writer’s Reference http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/

For examples of in-text citations, a list of references, and a sample paper click on Research and Documentation Online > Social Sciences: APA Style.

Indiana University's School of Education has a helpful site on plagiarism with exercises and a test http://www.indiana.edu/~istd/

Purdue University’s online writing lab http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

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References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author.

Council of Writing Program Administrators. (n.d.). Defining and avoiding plagiarism: The WPA statement on best practices [Electronic version]. Retrieved August 29, 2003, from http://www.ilstu.edu/~ddhesse/wpa/

Hacker, D. (2003). A Writer’s Reference. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Vernon, R. F., Bigna, S., & Smith, M. L. (2000, Winter). Plagiarism and the web [Electronic version]. Journal of Social Work Education, 37(1), 193.

Wilhoit, S. (1994, Fall). Helping students avoid plagiarism. College Teaching, 42(4), 161. Retrieved August 28, 2003, from EBSCOhost database.