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Plagiarism, and Paraphrasing Plagiarism Acadia’s Policy on Academic Integrity is available in the university calendar: https://registrar.acadiau.ca/AcademicCalendars.html Whether intentional or not, plagiarism is a serious offence in academia. Like many things in life, the best defence for avoiding plagiarism is a good offense. Tips for avoiding issues with plagiarism are provided below: • Know and understand the rules • Write notes as you read (summarize ideas, include citation information) • Practice paraphrasing (see next section) • Don’t write with source open in front of you • Aim to synthesize ideas, not list them • Write in a way that makes it clear whose ideas are whose (yours vs. sources) • Revise your work several times to achieve this clarity • Don’t share your work with others – helping others plagiarize is a serious offence as well Paraphrasing • Read your source material, make sure you understand it, and then put it away! Writing without looking at the text will make it easier to say it in your own words • Take abbreviated notes of the source material. When it comes time to paraphrase, review your notes and then put them away! • Replacing a few words is not properly paraphrasing. You should end up with something that has a different organization structure than the original. There are different approaches to paraphrasing; changing the structure of the sentences/paragraphs, bringing multiple sections together, and removing unnecessary detail will all help develop a good paraphrase • Do not lose or misrepresent the original meaning of the source material. This also means you shouldn’t provide a citation for information that doesn’t match that reference. Your citations must be accurate. • Once you’ve written your paraphrase, check that it doesn’t resemble the original too closely. If it does, try revising again • Change keywords from the original when appropriate. Unpack, re-pack, or pack into a different form. • Always include a citation – there is nothing wrong with citing someone else’s ideas or findings • Sometimes paraphrasing is frustrating because it seems like the author wrote it best already. This can make it hard to see others ways to say the same thing. Try describing the passage out loud to a friend or classmate – moving away from the page might help you find another, just as good way to express the same thing If you would like some additional practice on plagiarism and paraphrasing, the following links will take you to some online quizzes to try. https://bio.ucalgary.ca/undergraduate/current_students/paraphrasing https://www.indiana.edu/~academy/firstPrinciples/index.html A plagiarism tutorial is also available from the Acadia library: http://library.acadiau.ca/tutorials/plagiarism/ References: Davis, H. B., Tyson, J. F., & Pechenik, J. A. (2010). A short guide to writing about chemistry. Upper Saddle River: Pearson. Gilpin, A. A. & Patchet-Golubev, P. (2000). A guide to writing in the sciences. Toronto: The University of Toronto Press. University of Calgary Department of Biology. (n.d.). Test your understanding of plagiarism. Retrieved Feb. 4, 2013. From http://www.bio.ucalgary.ca/undergrad/plagiarism/plagiarismquiz.html. https://registrar.acadiau.ca/AcademicCalendars.html https://bio.ucalgary.ca/undergraduate/current_students/paraphrasing https://www.indiana.edu/~academy/firstPrinciples/index.html http://library.acadiau.ca/tutorials/plagiarism/