1. Avoiding Plagiarism Presented by the Center for Writing and Languages In partnership with the Integrated Learning Resource Center

2. What is plagiarism? • Plagiarism (papers, projects or any assignment prepared outside of class) includes, but is not limitedto . . . • Omitting quotation marks or other conventional markings around material quoted from any printed source • Paraphrasing a specific passage from a specific source without properly referencing the source • Replicating another student's work, in whole or in part and submitting it as original (Source: https://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=24212)

3. Documentation Styles • MLA -Parenthetical citations -Used in English and sometimes COMS • APA -Parenthetical citations, date emphasized -Used in psychology and other human sciences

4. More Documentation Styles • Turabian -Footnotes -Used in history, philosophy, and religion • AMA -Sources are numbered and keyed to endnotes -Used in medical sciences

5. Library Helps for Citing • Placeholder—Rory will provide content.

6. Using sources • Quoting: Using author’s exact words • Paraphrasing: Restating author’s ideas in your own words and your own sentence structure • Summarizing: Briefly stating author’s main point in your own words and sentence structure. A summary is shorter than the original text. • All three must be followed by citations.

7. When to use each method • Quote when the individual words are just as important as the message (e.g., poetry). • Paraphrase when the message is more important than the word choice. This is often the case! • Summarize when you are dealing with a large amount of relevant source material (e.g., you’re writing a book review).

8. How not to paraphrase • Do not try to go directly from the page to the computer screen, word by word. • This makes it too easy to copy the author’s sentence structure. • This method can also lead to awkward word choice if you try to avoid plagiarism by looking up a synonym for each word.

9. How to paraphrase • Start with a manageable amount of source material. • Read it several times to make sure you understand it. • Close the book or other source and put it aside. • Write the main ideas of the passage you’ve just read in your own “voice”: the way you would say it. • Go back to the original source and check your paraphrase for accuracy.

10. Note-taking • I think Rory is covering this as well.

11. SafeAssign • Some instructors will require you to upload your papers to SafeAssign. • This is a Blackboard-based program that finds parts of a paper that match other student papers, websites, and some published sources. • It is not a fool-proof program, but it is useful for alerting instructors to possible plagiarism.

12. Your response to SafeAssign • Don’t plagiarize! • Don’t pay attention to the percentage. A paper with a large number of direct quotes may have a high percentage. That doesn’t mean it’s plagiarized. • Don’t worry—your instructors won’t make decisions based on the percentage alone; they will check your papers and use their own judgment.

13. Questions? • Ask us now, or contact • the Undergraduate Writing Center undergraduatewriting@liberty.edu, 434-592-3174 • the Graduate Writing Center graduatewriting@liberty.edu, 434-592-4727 • Rory Patterson, research librarian rlpatterson2@liberty.edu, 434-582-2230