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Avoiding Plagiarism

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the reproduction or appropriation of someone else's work without proper attribution;  stealing and passing off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own.

It is an act of fraud. This type of cheating can be accidental or intentional and is a violation of NUNM's academic integrity policy. To avoid doing this in a paper or presentation, you must give credit to the original author by correctly using paraphrases and citations. If you are looking for citation help, check out our AMA citation library guide.

What Is Plagiarism? (n.d.) Retrieved February 4, 2017, from http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism

 

Tools for Learning About Plagiarism

This is a video that will help you understand plagiarism in under three minutes!

Made by Bainbridge State College and uploaded on January 5, 2010.

 

Information Power

A tutorial by Cal State Chico about how to use information responsibly. You can find the tutorial here.

  • investigating sources
  • searching databases
  • locating information
  • evaluating reliability
  • using information responsibly

The Office of Research Integrity

This guide provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services gives an thorough look in to ethical writing. It can be found here.

  • plagiarism
  • self-plagiarism
  • copyright law
  • paraphrasing
  • and more

Plagiarism + Misinformation

To learn more about how plagiarism and misinformation are connected, check out Seth Yoder's blog post about Ancel Key's Seven Country study here.

Top Ten Forms of Plagiarism

A survey initiated by the online-based plagiarism prevention service, Turn It In, found the ten most common forms of plagiarism that occur within the academic setting. 

Ways to Avoid Plagiarism

1. Read the primary source.

When reading a review of cited work, make sure to read the primary source. Do you agree with what the reviewer is saying? Is the information being taken out of context?

2. Use a reference manager.

A free reference manager such as Zotero and Mendeley can help you keep your citations organized, easy to find, and even easier to cite.

3. Outline your paper.

Outlining your paper can help you keep track of what you are saying, where your sources need to go, and who you are referencing.

4. Practice paraphrasing.

Practicing paraphrasing can help you better understand what you are paraphrasing and will keep you out of plagiarism trouble. For helpful tips and tricks, check out the Purdue OWL.

5. Cite your sources.

ALWAYS cite your sources. AMA citation is the official citation style for all NUNM assignments. If you need help with AMA citation you can always find information at AMA citation library guide.

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