Referencing is a practice of acknowledging other peoples works, ideas, sources used in a paper, assignment, report and conference papers in academic writing.
American Psychological Association (APA) style is an academic format specified in The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, a style guide that offers academic authors guidance on various subjects for the submission of papers to the publications of APA.
PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism “ is turning in or passing off someone else’s work as your own ”.
" Putting someone else’s work into your own words does not make it yours”.
“In an intellectual community ideas are passed around freely as most intellectual inquiry could not take place without borrowing from the work of others. Responsible, honest writers indicate their debt to others by clearly citing the material they have borrowed”.
1. Direct plagiarism – copying word for word what someone else has written without indicating it is a quote and without acknowledging the author. Copying a fellow student’s work and passing it off as your own is plagiarism
2. Vague or incorrect citation – a writer needs to indicate very clearly which sentences or paragraphs or pieces of information are from which source. The reference to a piece of information should come immediately after the information has been written.
3. Mosaic plagiarism – this is the most common type of plagiarism. The writer does not copy word for word but changes a few words here and there without actually changing the form of a sentence or paragraph so that the writing is very close to the original; and fails to acknowledge the source of the information.
AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
When in doubt….acknowledge the sources of all the information you include.
Quote – if you copy exactly what is in the text place the entire quotation must be in double quotation marks/inverted commas ( “ ) . Acknowledge the source.
Summarizing in your own words – it is often preferable to summarize a piece of text or ideas in your own words as this indicates your understanding and ability to write succinctly. Even though you summarize, you must acknowledge the source of the information. Summarizing does not make the information yours.
Taken from DePauw University Academic Resource Centre web site (www.depauw.edu)
What is Endnote?
EndNote is a package for creating and storing a library of references (citations plus abstracts, notes etc) which can then be used in conjunction with the typing of Word documents(e.g. assignments and theses) and creation of bibliographies(list of references). Full text documents, figures, tables etc can be added to the references as attachments. Once installed, EndNote X7 will automatically appear on your Microsoft Word ribbon.
Click here to view a basic library guide to Endnote 21.
Turnitin is an internet based tool used to check and detect plagiarism in an essay or any kind of academic related document. It is a license-based software which universities and school obtain through subscription.
Your lecturer will give you a class ID which you need when you register on the Turnitin site as a student.