Derived from Trish Hammond
An acknowledgment of someone else’s words or ideas is called a citation.
A citation directs the reader to the original source of the information.
Facts that are considered general knowledge do not need to be cited.
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. 4th ed. 2005. Print.
Plagiarism is illegal; it is theft of another person's intellectual property.
Plagiarism is easier to recognize than you think.
Possible Consequences
The consequences of plagiarism can be severe. Some include:
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?"
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.
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.
A. Three main benefits include:
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.
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.
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.
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.
TurnItIn is a text-matching web application to help you detect plagiarism, so you have the opportunity to 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:
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.