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Plagiarism occurs when sources are not properly quoted and documented. When writing essays, personal statements, and research papers, you must give credit to your sources, whether you quote them directly, summarize them, or paraphrase them.
According to the Mount Saint Mary's University Catalog, plagiarism falls into the category of Academic Dishonesty. It is a serious offense that will not be treated lightly. Consequences include any of the following: failing the assignment, a lowered and/or failing grade in the course, suspension, academic probation, or expulsion.
Mount Saint Mary's University professors use Turnitin, a program that scans students' work for excessive similarities to other published material from their database of print and online works. They can also tell if the writing style sounds like your voice or the voice of Ph.D. writing for a scholarly journal.
For further information, check out:
It helps to view copyright through the lens of common courtesy.
Whether repurposing someone else's work under fair use, quoting someone's words for a paper or borrowing someone's Creative Commons (CC) licensed work, it is polite to reference the source, to let others know where you found the information. Not only are you helping others to find useful and creative material, but you are giving credit where credit is due. You are recognizing the efforts of creative people!
Starting early allows plenty of time to organize your research, write your paper, AND arrange for someone to edit your writing.
Keep an updated list of all facts, direct quotes, and information with the full source citation. Compiling your source list as you go will save time when you're assembling your paper.
Describe the main points of an article in several sentences without quoting the text or asserting your personal opinion of the text. Cite your sources with parenthetical notes and in the "Works Cited."
Combine the main points of the article with your opinion. This will be more extensive than a summary. Make sure that you include a parenthetical citation whenever you share facts that were found in an article or book.
If you're not sure whether or not a fact is common knowledge, include a citation. This signals the reader that this fact is not your opinion, but has its origins in someone else's work.
To review citation guidelines and examples, check out the guide below:
Some free, online sites that check for inadvertent plagiarism and/or style and organizational flaws:
These should not replace the human review process (such as asking a friend, colleague, professor, etc. to read your paper), but they can be useful for understanding the value of proper summarization and paraphrasing. This will help you to build your writing skills.
Books
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Papal Encyclicals
Biblical Verses (in-text not always in bibliographies)
Personal Blogs
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