Plagiarism Prevention UCQ Learning Commons Enriching Qatar Health

Plagiarism Prevention UCQ Learning Commons Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

What is plagiarism? Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

New Definitions: • The incorrect use of source material • The incomplete acknowledgement of words, ideas, information, images or anything else you use from a source Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Why avoid plagiarism? • To display your professionalism and honesty • To demonstrate your own abilities • To get good grades and support your academic performance Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Several forms of plagiarism • Intentional cheating • Unintentional rule-breaking • Self-plagiarism • Group work Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Intentional cheating • Trying to find shortcuts • Presenting someone else’s ideas or words as your own • Deceiving your instructor Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Intentional cheating examples • Copy-pasting from the internet • Copying from any other source (print, electronic, audio, video, etc. ) • Pretending you wrote something when you did not • Inventing sources or information • Copying a paper, or sections of a paper, from someone else Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Preventing intentional cheating • Just don’t do it Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Unintentional plagiarism • Do not know all the rules • Forget something or make a mistake • Do not keep track of your sources • Cannot write well so you insert someone else’s “better” writing Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Unintentional plagiarism examples • Not using your own words for summaries and paraphrases • Not putting quote marks around source material • Not giving an in-text citation and reference at the end of your paper • Copy-pasting small sections • Copy sections of other writing, but change some of the words Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Preventing unintentional plagiarism • Paraphrase, summarize and quote correctly • Include citations after every time you use ideas or words from a source • Proofread you work to make sure you have not missed anything, like “quote marks” • Keep track of your sources • Write as well as you can • Do not use too much source material Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Citing source material • Every single source you use must be cited in your paper and referenced in the bibliography • This includes: – Information from books, reports, articles – Class notes and lectures – Any information from any website – Photos, images, movies, songs – Statistics, graphs, charts Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Citing exceptions There are only two types of information that do not have to be cited: 1. Your own ideas – However, if you find similar ideas somewhere else, you must acknowledge them 2. Common knowledge – Not controversial – Found in several sources without a citation – Not the focus of your paper Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Why is referencing important? • It makes it clear where the words and ideas in your paper came from • It enables your readers to find and explore the information for themselves • It allows your professor to evaluate your ideas and see which sources you use • It protects your academic integrity by showing that you are honest about where the ideas you present come from Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Self-plagiarism Examples: • Handing in the same assignment to more than one instructor • Copying sections of work you have done before into a new assignment Why it is wrong: • It is dishonest because you have not done the work required for the class Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Group work 1. When group work is assigned: • All members are responsible for the work submitted • If one person plagiarizes, the whole group can get in trouble 2. When working in unassigned groups: • The work you hand in may be similar to another student’s • Both students can get in trouble for it Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

How do instructors know? • Instructors are experts in their field and can often identify the source of certain ideas • Instructors know the abilities of their students, especially in small classes • The quality of your writing varies when you copypaste sections • They can check with Google or other tools • On a small campus, all instructors talk to each other all the time Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

What can happen? • Even if you do not know the rules you can still get in trouble and lose your good standing at UCQ • There are several possible penalties: – Rewrite the assignment – Fail the class • If the problem is significant or persistent, you can be dismissed from the University • All University of Calgary students should know the penalties on the U of C Calendar Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Plagiarism Quiz: True or False 1. You can copy information without giving credit to a website if there is no clear author. 2. You can hand in the same assignment to two different instructors because it is your own work. 3. You can use any information from a source as long as you put the reference in the bibliography. 4. Your instructor cannot fail you for plagiarizing. 5. If you do not know the rules, you cannot get in trouble for plagiarizing. Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

Plagiarism Quiz: True or False 1. False – even if there is no author, you still need to acknowledge the source. 2. False – that is self-plagiarism. 3. False – you also need to give the in-text citation. 4. False – you can fail the paper or the class. 5. False – you can get in trouble whether or not you know the rules. Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca

UCQ Learning Commons Writing Support Come to the Writing Centre at any stage of the writing process for help and advice. In the Learning Commons, or contact Martin at mholock@ucalgary. ca Enriching Qatar Health and Wellness www. qatar. ucalgary. ca