1. Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism
- What is Plagiarism? Copying or using someone else's ideas, words, or work without proper acknowledgment.
- Avoiding Plagiarism: Always cite your sources, whether you’re paraphrasing, summarizing, or quoting. Understand the difference between these three techniques.
2. Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Quoting
- Paraphrasing: Read, understand, and express the information in your own words. Always cite the original source.
- Summarizing: Condense the main ideas of a text into a brief overview, in your own words. This also requires a citation.
- Quoting: Use the exact words from a source with quotation marks and provide a citation.
3. Citation Basics
- Why Cite? Citations give credit to the original author, allow others to find the source you used, and lend credibility to your work.
- Common Styles: APA, MLA, Chicago. Your field of study often determines which style you should use.
4. Citation Components
- Basic Elements: Author(s), title of the work, publication date, and source (like the book title, journal name, URL, etc.).
- In-text Citations: Appear in the body of your text. They briefly identify the source and often include the author's name and publication year.
- Bibliography/Works Cited: A list at the end of your paper that includes full details of every source cited in your work.
5. Using Citation Tools
- Tools and Software: Utilize citation generators and reference management software, such as Zotero or Mendeley, to help format your citations correctly.
Remember:
- Proper citation is a key academic skill. It respects intellectual property, provides a trail for others to follow your research process, and protects you from plagiarism accusations.
- Always check your work against your department's recommended citation style guide.
