Plagiarizing 

What is it?       To Cite or Not to Cite      Citation & Style Manual

What is plagiarizing?

• "Using someone else's work in your assignment without appropriate acknowledgement."
• "Making slight variations in the language and then failing to give credit to the source."  (from Scholastic Dishonesty at  http://www2.uta.edu/discipline/text_aca_integrity.htm )

What are the consequences of Plagiarizing at UTA?

                         http://www2.uta.edu/discipline/text_aca_integrity.htm  

When should I cite?   

• To appropriately acknowledge someone else's work. Cite someone else's

• Including something in your paper that is not "common knowledge."

Examples of when to cite:

•  Plagiarism. What it is and How to Recognize and Avoid It http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html 
• Avoiding Plagiarism http://www.hamilton.edu/academic/Resource/WC/AvoidingPlagiarism.html 
• Plagiarism in Colleges in USA http://www.rbs2.com/plag.htm 
• Plagiarism http://www.northwestern.edu/uacc/plagiar.html

When do I not need to cite? 

• If you are including something in your paper that is considered "common knowledge."   "Common knowledge" is knowledge that is know by the general public, i.e. Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941.  If you are unsure if something is common knowledge, then you should cite your source. 
• If you have an original idea of your own.

What is a citation?

"Information which fully identifies a publication; a complete citation usually includes author, title, name of journal (if the citation is to an article) or publisher (if to a book), and date. Often pages, volumes and other information will be included in a citation." (from http://libraries.uta.edu/howto/research/vocab.htm )

Examples: 

Author's name. Title of Book. Publication information
Huxley, Aldous.  Brave New World. New York:  Harper & Brothers, 1946. (MLA style)

Author's name. "Title of the article." Publication information
White, Sabina, and Andrew Winzelberg. "Laughter and Stress." Humor 5 (1992): 343-55. (MLA Style)

What is a style manual?

The format that a citation should take in a bibliography will depend on which style is appropriate for your field of study.  The major style manuals used at UTA are.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.  (APA)
Example:  Huxley, Aldous. (1946).  Brave New World. New York:  Harper & Brothers.

A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian)
Example:  Huxley, Aldous.  Brave New World. New York:  Harper & Brothers, 1946.  

For Further Help, See:

             Plagiarism site at  http://www.web-miner.com/plagiarism  

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Last Modified: 06 May 2003 12:35:50