EDUC 1301 (Intro. to Education) - Dr. K. Willis

Avoiding Plagiarism

In all of your college assignments, you MUST avoid plagiarism. The boxes and videos below define plagiarism and tell you how to avoid it. When you've finished looking at this page, check out the Using APA Citation Style page on the left to learn how to create in-text citations and References pages in APA Style. 

It's easy to understand most types of cheating because we learned about them as children. It's harder to understand plagiarism though.

Take a look at McLennan Community College's Academic Integrity policy to learn how the college defines cheating and plagiarism and discover the penalties for each.

Afterward, visit Purdue OWL's Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing or its Best Practices to Avoid Plagiarism to make sure you know how to avoid accidental plagiarism. (Yes, you can accidentally commit plagiarism!)

The video below also offers some useful information on plagiarism and tips for avoiding it.

To use information ethically, you must cite, or give credit to, your sources. Even if you put the information into your own words, the evidence to support your statements came from someone who deserves to be acknowledged.

So, how do you use another author's ideas or words ethically? The three ways are quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Anytime you quote, paraphrase, or summarize, you need to include an in-text citation in the body of your paper, and provide a complete entry in your References list.

• Quoting: Quoting is when you a repeat a person's ideas word-for-word. Quotes should not be overused! Only use quotes that are especially powerful.

• Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing is when you take a passage from another person's work and restate it in your own words. The passage you use is usually only a part of the larger work.

• Summarizing: Summarizing is like paraphrasing. It involves restating someone else's ideas in your own words, in a shorter version. However, a summary is broader than a paraphrase and is more condensed.

Are you struggling to find research materials, use our library databases, or write citations and references? Our research librarians can help!

Just need a little help? Visit the Learning Commons' third-floor desk in the Learning Technology Center (LTC), or contact us via live chat or email. You can also call us at 254-299-8325.

Need a lot of help? Schedule a research consultation with one of our research librarians. It's their job to help you succeed!

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Academic Support and Tutoring (AST) provides free tutoring to MCC students (including writing and citation assistance) and free support and tutorials for college-related software.

AST offers in-person support in the Learning Commons, located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Learning Technology Center (LTC). You can also reach out to AST via phone, Zoom, or email.

Use the link above to learn more about AST and locate its contact information and hours. 

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.