Plagiarism

It's important to be aware of what is and is not plagiarism. It can be very tempting to copy someone's work and turn it in as your own. However, this has serious consequences, which only increase as you continue your education. In high school it can result as a 0 on a paper or an F in a course. This can make it difficult or impossible to get into the college of your choice. In college you can be kicked out of the university without the option of transferring.

When you are asked to do a research project or any project of your own you are expected to express your thoughts and ideas about the works you have researched. You are to talk about them as they apply to what you have done or how you think they fit together. You can and should reference the work of others. However in order to properly do this there are rules.

Some basic ideas: 1) Paraphrasing - you take the author's ideas and put them in different words You must cite this after the sentence or paragraph or indicate in the sentence who's idea you are referencing. 2) Quoting - you take the exact words or almost exact words of someone else You must cite this after the quoted text. The quoted text must be in quotation marks.

[|Here is a basic guide to what is and is not plagiarism from the University of Ottawa.]

To cite your sources you can use this website to be sure you have created a properly formatted works cited or bibliography page. [|Citation Builder]

[|Plagiarism.org]