Research Guides: Special Education: Avoid plagiarism

Web resources on plagiarism

Plagiarism Overview (Purdue OWL)
Explains plagiarism, FAQs, best practices to avoid it, and more.
Plagiarism.org
Sponsored by TurnItIn, this website has videos and written information on understanding and preventing plagiarism.
Plagiarism (The Writing Center at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Information on what plagiarism is and details steps on how to avoid it.
Using AI responsibly (University of Mary Washington)
Covers how to use AI responsibly to avoid plagiarism.

Tips for avoiding plagiarism

The only way to avoid plagiarism is to correctly give credit (or 'attribution') to words and ideas that you got from another person

Credit must be given when you quote, paraphrase, or summarize someone else’s ideas.

Follow these tips to help you stay on top of appropriately attributing sources.

Tips for preventing plagiarism

Start your assignment as soon as you can: If you leave your assignment to the last minute, you'll rush and may miss properly citing sources that you use.

Log in using your JagID credentials to the Libraries' GALILEO, Gil-Find Catalog, or the individual databases you frequently use (some databases may require you to create a free account). Save the sources you find to these accounts so you can easily cite them.

Record the citation details for each source you save, and record your own notes about each source you want to use. GALILEO and individual databases have a cite generator that can used to generate and save citations.

Write your rough draft in only your own words, and only quote sparingly. Add quotes after your main argument has been made.

Use quotation marks around phrases or sentences that you have cited verbatim from the source.

Consult the appropriate citation guide or handbook, e.g., MLA or APA, so you know how to paraphrase, quote, and cite correctly in that citation style.

Run your paper through TurnItIn* early if your professor has activated it for your course through D2L. Otherwise, you can run it through a free text-matching application (see suggestions below). Make any revisions if necessary.

Still aren't sure? If you aren’t sure how to do any of the above, ask your professor well before your paper is due.

*Turnitin is a text-matching web application to help you detect plagiarism so you can revise your paper before final submission. If your professor doesn't use TurnItIn or another text-matching application, you can test your papers on these free sites:

Paper Rater
"Every day, thousands of people use PaperRater to check for plagiarism, as well as spelling and grammatical errors. Unlike other plagiarism checkers, we require no logins or registration unless you choose to sign up for our premium services."
Viper
"Viper works just like Turnitin, the well-known plagiarism checker used by many universities. Accessible anywhere in the world via your web browser, Viper is incredibly fast, powerful and simple to use... Unlike Turnitin, however, you can use Viper whenever and as many times as you like – not just once when submitting your final piece of work!"

What does it mean, "to plagiarize"?

plagiarize (plā’jə rīz’) vt., vi. –rized’, -riz’∙ing to take (ideas, writings, etc.) from (another) and pass them off as one’s own.

- “Plagiarize.” Webster’s New World College Dictionary. 4^th ed. 2005. Print.

The trouble with plagiarism...

Plagiarism is:

Prohibited at Augusta University and is typically prohibited in all universities and colleges.
Ilegal; it is theft of another person's intellectual property.
Easier to recognize than you think.

Possible Consequences

The consequences of plagiarism can be severe. Some include:

Failing the assignment
Failing the class
Expulsion from university
Deprived of entrance into college programs or graduate school
Deprived of scholarships and grants
Getting fined
Inability / more difficult to obtain a job.

It is plagiarism if you...

Paraphrase or use some text from a generative AI tool like ChatGPT, Google Bard, or CoPilot, and don't cite it
Copy only part of someone else’s work, and don't cite
Don’t use the author’s exact words, but you still don't cite
Shorten two pages of text into one sentence, but still don't cite
Include the work in the Works Cited page but forget to include an in-text citation
Turn in a paper written for another class
Cite the author but not the book/article
Don't cite because you can’t remember where you found the information
Don't use quotation marks for something that you quote word-for-word, even though you cite it
Buy a paper on the internet and turn it in!
Plagiarize by accident.

Derived from Trish Hammond

FAQs about plagiarism and citing to avoid it

Q: Why is it important not to plagiarize?

A: Most of what you hear about plagiarism is couched in terms of avoidance - the range of severe repercussions. Why is such a big deal made out of this? From high school onwards, students are told NOT to plagiarize.

A more fruitful approach may be to ask "Why do we document?"

Q. Why do we 'document'?

A. When any kind of research is undertaken, the process begins with a careful, often critical and analytical, review of the work that has already been done that is relevant to the project at hand.

Some of this earlier work will be incorporated into the current project, to support the researcher's basic approach and theories; some of it may be refuted by the research being done; all of it is important to understanding how the researcher's work fits into the field in which they are working.

Q: What is 'documentation'?

A: Documentation is the careful way in which the researcher tells her/his readers which of these works he/she is using, and to what purpose. Documentation incorporates citing your sources accurately.

Without documentation, subsequent researchers will waste valuable time replicating work that has already been done, but not documented for others to find. Whenever you're doing research, you should always document your work.

Q. What are the benefits of documentation?

A. Three main benefits include:

Prevent plagiarism - Documenting as you go along in your research and writing, will help prevent plagiarism.
To satisfy your assignment - Research papers, presentations, and other types of assignments often require some kind of search for sources of information to support your research question. Make your professor happy, and get full credit, all at the same time.
To enhance your assignment grade - When doing work for a grade, you need to be sure to give the person grading your work something to assess. Your careful analysis of works that you have found on your own among the things that your professors are looking for when they grade your research assignments.

Q. Are there resources to help me learn to cite?

A. All established citation styles have a manual.

Manuals are typically available for purchase in print or eBook format. The Libraries' have the manuals of the main citation styles used at Augusta University.

Your professor may recommend a guide to the citation style they wish you to follow.

If they don't, many popular citation styles have authoritative guides to the manual, available in books, eBooks, websites, and Library Guides.

Be careful of simply Googling how to cite in a particular style. Ensure that the guidelines you find are credible, authoritative, and current.

Q: Are there tools to shortcut citation work?

A: GALILEO and many individual databases include citation helper utilities which largely shortcut the process. GALILEO and EBSCOhost databases, for example, have a citation generator, so you can generate the citation in a number of popular citation styles.

The Libraries also subscribes to EndNote, a citation management software with a complementary cloud service*

This expensive software is FREE for download while you are a student or employee at Augusta University.

Similar citation tools from competitors are freely available online, however, have limited capabilities unless you pay to upgrade.

Download and learn EndNote

Q. Are citation tools, like citation generators, citation management software and web applications accurate?

A. NO citation helper or management tools -- even the expensive ones -- are 100% accurate. (Sorry. Maybe by next century.)

This is due to the YOGOWPI factor - the "You only Get Out What You Put In".

It depends on the data and information that is in the record of the journal article, book, eBook, report, or another source type. If the raw data is inaccurate, or not correctly entered, for example, UPPERCASE TITLES, missing elements like missing author, page numbers, volume, issue; incorrect spelling, etc. then the citation generator or citation management tool doesn't have the intelligence to detect and correct that.

You need to review the imported citation and correct it.

So, bottom line - use citation helpers as short-cuts, not as the last word.

Always use the manual to the citation style, or a guide to the manual, required for your assignment to verify that your details are correct.

References for this page

Crawford, Mary and Rhoda Unger. Women and Gender: A Feminist Psychology. 3rd ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000. Print.

Hammond, Patricia. "Augusta University Writing Center’s Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism." 2011. Microsoft Powerpoint file.

"Plagiarize." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 4th ed. 2005. Print.