In western culture, our words and ideas are considered intellectual property and cannot be used by others without permission. You commit plagiarism when you use another person's words or ideas without crediting them, which is a serious academic offense that could get you dismissed from school. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to cite your sources and cite them properly. Click on the links below to learn more about citations.
A citation is a reference to the source of an idea or piece of information. Your citation should allow anyone who sees your reference list to be able to find the original source. Typically, citations include information such as author, title, date, website URL, etc.Whenever you get information from a source, quote it, or base your ideas on another person's work, you must document the source you used in an accepted citation style.
To give credit to the author or creator whose ideas you are using
To add credibility and support to your own argument
To respect creators’ moral rights within the Canadian Copyright Act
If you don't cite, you commitplagiarism. According to Okanagan College's Academic Integrity policies, "plagiarism is the presentation of another person's work or ideas without proper or complete acknowledgement." By committing plagiarism, you risk getting a zero on the assignment or the course and even suspension or dismissal from the college.
There are two basic ways to cite in-text (in the body of your paper). You can use quotations to copy exact words or you can paraphrase and summarize ideas from the source. Learn more by clicking the links below:
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