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Plagiarism: Home

What it is and how to avoid it

Plagiarism resources @ VCC library

Academic integrity in Canada : an enduring and essential challenge (2022)

This book will be of interest to senior university and college administrators who are interested in ensuring the integrity of their institutions. It will also be of interest to those implementing university and college policy, as well as those who support students in their scholarly work.

MLA Handbook (2016)

Provides guidelines and examples for handling research, outlining, spelling, punctuation, formatting, and documentation.

How to Write Better Essays (2013)

For every student who needs to write essays, from whatever discipline, this book is an essential resource, offering the help and inspiration they need to tackle their essays with confidence. 

The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism (2010)

 This guide provides clear guidelines on why and when to reference as well as how to correctly cite from a huge range of sources. Tackling all the main forms of referencing - Harvard, APA, MLA and Numerical referencing styles – in an accessible and comprehensive manner, you'll want to dip into this book again and again.

Cite them right : the essential referencing guide (2010)

This book is renowned as one of the most comprehensive yet easy-to-use guide to referencing available.

What Every Student Should Know about Avoiding Plagiarism (2009)

 This guide teaches students to take plagiarism seriously and understand its consequences. Here, source usage methods–summary, paraphrase and quotation–are explained, with examples.

What is plagiarism and how to avoid it?

Plagiarism is using someone else's words or ideas and claiming them as your own.

To avoid plagiarism you must always give credit for information you have taken from someone else.

You must give credit whenever you use things like:

  • words, phrases, quotations
  • ideas, theories, or opinions
  • charts, graphs, drawings, diagrams, music, art

Plagiarism tutorials from other institutions

Test your knowledge - You Quote It, You Note It!

You Quote It, You Note It! - An interactive plagiarism tutorial by Acadia University
(takes about 10 min)

You Quote It, You Note It! Plagiarism tutorial by Acadia University

Avoiding plagiarism in your writing - Quick tips

Quoting

  • Use quotation marks whenever quoting an exact phrase, sentence or short paragraph
  • Longer quotations should not be included in quotation marks, but indented, as indicated by the citation style in use
  • Always include a citation

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

  • To correctly paraphrase or summarize, you must change both the language AND sentence structure
  • Always include a citation

Citing

  • Acknowledge ALL sources of borrowed ideas and materials, whether they are written, spoken, visuals or in any other format
  • Make sure that the reader can clearly distinguish between your thoughts and information you borrowed by placing your citations in the appropriate place
  • Properly format your in-text citations (or footnotes if using Chicago Style) and your reference list (also called works cited or bibliography)
  • Cite your sources both in your text AND in your list of sources

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