Applied Geophysics - Spring 2019: Avoiding Plagiarism

Remember to cite when:

• quoting
• paraphrasing
• summarizing
• borrowing an image

You do NOT have to cite when it is:

• common knowledge
• original thought

Plagiarism is the "stealing" or use of someone else's work without attribution - i.e., treating someone else's work as if it were your own. This is a very serious charge and can result in severe disciplinary action, including a fail grades and possibly even expulsion. 

To avoid plagiarism, cite your sources!  Citations not only give proper credit to others for their ideas, but they indicate to your reader what resources were referred to when writing your paper. 

For more information on plagiarism, please take a look at the items below:

As you gather your sources, compile your References section. Complete this section before you begin writing your paper! Why?

• This will ensure that you have copied down all the necessary citation components of your book, article, Web site, etc.
• It will make your life much easier when you need to do in-text citations since authors and dates are already neatly organized on your reference page.
• It decreases the chance that you'll include an in-text citation for a source, but then forget to include it within the reference section.