PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the act of using another person's work, idea, or words without properly giving credit. Plagiarism is one of the worst mistakes a student can make in his or her academic career. Often, the student who is caught will fail the assignment, if not the entire class. He or she will be lucky not to be removed from campus. Plagiarism is usually associated with laziness, poor judgment, and lack of time management, skills most employers hate to witness in the work place.
AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
- THE DON'Ts
- Don't use paper's other than your own. Using a friend's old English essay or a paper you bought from the internet is plagiarism.
- Don't use paper's you have written for other classes. Although you wrote the paper, academically The University expects you to contribute new ideas to each classroom.
- Don't think you won't get caught! Your professors are well educated and can easily spot plagiarized papers. They also have the ability to check for plagiarism via software.
- THE DO's
- Use quotation marks when necessary to show an author's direct idea or speech.
- Paraphrase often. Putting an idea into your own words shows a better understanding of it. Paraphrased material still requires proper citations.
- Be attentive and meticulous when styling your bibliography, but most of all be consistent.
STANDARD APA FORMAT
- Typed, double space, Times News Roman, 12pt.
- Paper should have 1" margins.
- Include a running header (ALL CAPS). This is a short version of your paper title; not to exceed 50 characters.
- 4 Parts: Title, Abstract, Main Body, References
- Title page should include Title, Your Name, and Affiliation, centered on the upper portion of the page
- The Abstract is an individual page. "Abstract" should be centered, in regular format
- Start the abstract at the left tab with no paragraph indents.
For further information and examples, check out General Format from Purdue Owl.
Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderlund, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). General format. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
APA Style uses parenthetical referencing. The basic reference should be placed in the parentheses, ex: (Author, date). Notice that the period goes outside of the parentheses at the end of the sentence. You can also reference the author's name in the text using words like according to and the author said. Here are some examples of usage.
- According to Laning (2014), "Making good decisions is the ability to leverage the information you have access to, both qualitative and quantitative information, and combine it with good judgment to take decisive action in areas important to your organization."
- Good decisions are made by using qualitative and quantitative information, along with good judgment of where to act within an the organization (Laning, 2014).
Dealing with missing information.
Note. Titles of books and reports are italicized in in-text citations, and titles of articles and other documents are put in quotation marks. Capitalize the important words (see section 4.15 in the 6th ed. Publication Manual, pp. 101–102) in titles in the text.
| What information do you have? | Solution | Position A | Position B |
| I have both author and date | n/a | Author surname(s) | year |
| Author is missing | Substitute the title for the author name | Title of Book or "Title of Article" | year |
| Date is missing | Use "n.d." for "no date" | Author surname(s) | n.d. |
| Author and date are both missing | Combine solutions for author and date being missing | Title of Book or "Title of Article" |
n.d. |
Lee, C. (2011, January 27). Writing in-text citations in APA style [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/01/writing-in-text-citations-in-apa-style.html?_ga=1.8338034.1196599441.1476707626
General Books
Author last name, First. Initials. (Date). Title of the book: Capitalization for subtitle. City, State Abbreviation: Publisher.
Author last name, First. Initials., & Author last name, Firsts. Initials. (Date). Title of the book. City, State Abbreviation: Publisher.
Edited Books / No Author
Editor last name, First. Initials., & Editor last name, First. Initials. (Eds.). (Date). Title of the book. City, State Abbreviation: Publisher.
Edited Books / With Author
Author last name, First. Initials. (Date). Title of the book. First. Initials. Editor last name (Ed.). City, State Abbreviation: Publisher.
E-Books
Author last name, First. Initials. (Date). Title of the book: Capitalization for subtitle. Retrieved from http://www.enter-the-stable-url-here.com
Author last name, First. Initials. (Date). Title of the book. First. Initials. Editor last name (Ed.). Retrieved from http://www.enter-the-stable-url-here.com
Journal Article from an Online Database
Author last name, First. Initials. (Date). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number, page range. Retrieved from http://www.enter-the-stable-url-here.com
Journal Article from an Online Database with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Author last name, First. Initials. (Date). Title of the article: Subtitle of the artilce. Title of Journal, volume number: issue number, page numbers. doi:10.1108/03090560710821161
General Web Formats (See examples)
Author last name, First. Initial. (Date). Title of document. Retrieved from http://Web address
- Hammermill Library. (2016). Library of Congress call numbers. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/TH6oEkCL88s
- Note that YouTube videos use the creator's name
- Policies. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://library.mercyhurst.edu/using-library/policies
- If no author is available, replace the author with the title. For no date use (n.d.).
- Mercyhurst University Hammermill and Ridge Libraries. (2016, October 11). Fall Break Hours: Hammermill Library hours will remain the same during Mid-Semester break, October 13th through October 16th. Ridge Library will be open Thursday and Friday 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Saturday and Sunday. [Facebook status update]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/MUHammermillAndRidgeLibraries/posts/10154224227769039
- Facebook updates include only the first 40 words of the post, unformatted, for the title. For Tweets, Author, F.I. (Date) Utilize the entire message [Tweet]. Retrieved from url
- Cite Government Resources Like A Pro
The Federal Depository Library Program offered a great presentation on how to cite government documents and resources. Any professional working with these types of materials should watch this presentation! Thanks Bobby Griffith, University of North Texas, for a great presentation.
