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Master's Students Guide

Plagiarism

To represent oneself as the author of some work that is in fact the work of someone else is to plagiarize. Plagiarism may include the “passing off” of the form of the work—for example, the exact words of a piece of writing—or the intellectual content, or both. Plagiarism may take any of the below forms:

  • Work on Behalf
  • Collusion
  • Cut and Paste
  • Paraphrase (here, a person copies the intellectual content and changes the form without acknowledgment of the original source).

Academia treats plagiarism seriously for two reasons. First, it devalues a profession based on honesty, and second, it undermines the essence of professional advancement which is mainly achieved through publishing and citing (Pickering, 2008)*.

*Pickering, J. W. (2008). Plagiarism. In V. N. Parrillo, Encyclopedia of social problems. Sage Publications. Credo Reference:

https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sagesocprob/plagiarism/0

Citing your sources

A citation is a reference to the source of information used in your research. It usually takes the form of an in-text citation, sometimes a footnote, as well as an end-of paper citation commonly known as the bibliography. 

When do I need to cite:

  • When quoting text directly from a source.
  • When you reword or paraphrase sentences or phrases from a source.
  • When summarizing a particular idea or argument from a source

Elements to consider when citing:

  • What is the source I’m citing (book, article, website, video...etc.)
  • The data or essential information (Author’s name - Title - Date of publication - URL Link...etc.)
  • How will I order them (in what order I'll write them)
  • What punctuation & spacing

Helpful Resources

Citation Guides

Please check the below guides, one about APA Citation Style and the other about RefWorks.