Academic honesty; plagiarism, documentation

Iowa Central Community College
https://www.iowacentral.edu/tritonpass/triton_pass.asp

Smarthinking Writer's Handbook Chapter 3, Lesson 15 Documentation

Objective This lesson provides an introduction to the use of documentation in written assignments. It is designed to teach students the differences and logic underlying MLA and APA documentation. Introduction In America, anyone who writes an academic or professional paper and borrows information from another source must give credit to that particular source. The information that a writer borrows can include quotations, summaries, paraphrases, and any fact that is not common knowledge; therefore, any of these types of information must be clearly documented. By giving credit to the source, the writer also provides readers with enough information that they can find the cited source if they choose to do so. Different academic disciplines favor different styles for citing sources and writing bibliographies. The Modern Language Association (MLA) style is the style you will most likely use for your English courses or courses in the Humanities. The American Psychological Association (APA) style is the style you will most likely use for courses in social sciences. When do you need to document Idea: You're reading an article as you gather information for a research paper. You happen upon a great idea. You don't necessarily want to use a direction quotation from the article; you just like the idea. Remember: even if you use an idea that belongs to another author, you need to document. Using someone else's idea without citing that source is considered plagiarism. Direct Quotation: Any time you use an author's exact words, you need to let your reader know that those words belong to someone else. So, when you use a sentence or phrase that belongs to someone else, you should put the other person's words inside quotation marks. You'll also need to include a signal phrase and an in-text (or parenthetical) citation (explained below). Paraphrase: When you take an author's words and put them into your own words, it's called "paraphrasing." As is true with referring to an idea that belongs to someone else, when you paraphrase, you need to document. In other words, you'll want to let your reader know where you're getting this information that you're paraphrasing. Why document? You want and need to document for a number of reasons, including: Show people where your information is coming from Your readers might want to know more about your topic. If you document properly, a reader can go to your sources to get even more information about a subject that you refer to in your essay. So, documenting serves as a road map for people who want to do additional research-- beyond what you present in your writing project. Avoid plagiarism If you don't document, you run the risk of being accused of plagiarism. Plagiarism is presenting ideas and words as your own when they do not actually belong to you. Researched writing is about bringing ideas and information together in one place. However, if you don't make it clear that some of your information comes from sources beyond your own experience and knowledge, you are misrepresenting. Most schools have strict consequences for plagiarism. If you're writing for a nonacademic audience and you plagiarize, it's likely you'll lose your credibility. Give your essay or writing project authority When you refer to credible sources, you give your text weight. If you refer to experts in the field about which you are writing, your readers are more likely to take your work seriously. Styles of Documentation As stated in the introduction to this lesson, you will use different styles of documentation for different academic disciplines. In this lesson, we'll cover two styles that are commonly used in humanities courses (MLA Style) and social sciences courses (APA Style). Documenting a source in an essay is often a two-step process. You'll learn more about the specific steps in the sections to follow...