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Research Guides

High School Classes

This guide is designed to help build research skills for high school students

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is "presenting borrowed ideas or wording as if they were your own" (University of Calgary Student Success Centre, 2012). Whether the act of plagiarism is intentional or accidental, the consequences are very serious.

Ways to avoid plagiarism:

  • Cite your sources both within the text of your paper as well as in a reference list at the end.
  • Hand in original assignments for each class. 
  • When taking notes from a source, re-write the ideas in your own words (avoid cut-and-paste) -- unless you plan on using it as a quote.
  • When citing someone else's exact words, use quotation marks AND cite the source. Quote sparingly.
  • Paraphrase properly: make sure you understand the gist, look away, and rewrite in your own words. Think about how this idea fits into the larger scheme of your paper. You still need to cite even when you're not using the author's exact words.

Adapted from the Student Success Centre's (SSC) handout on What is Academic Integrity? [PDF] - check out the SSC website on Academic Integrity for more information!

Attribution

General knowledge does not need to be cited. It is often defined as the information found in textbook or encyclopedia.  When in doubt, do not assume general knowledge.

Example: Most university students will need to write an essay during their studies.

When you take the exact wording of someone else's idea (whether partial or full sentence/passage), you must attribute using quotations and an in text-citation OR footnote. It is often better to paraphrase or summarize, but there are times when the exact quote is perfect, or you want to discuss or analyze the quote itself.  Don't forget your works cited page at the end!

In-text Citation Example:

This is further reinforced by the fact that "[e]fficacy of technological tools and mediums has been measured in a variety of ways in education, but student learning is the most frequently used measure of efficacy" (Rockinson-Szapkiw et. al, 259). 

Works Cited

Rockinson-Szapkiw, Amanda J., et al. "Electronic versus traditional print textbooks: A comparison study on the influence of university students' learning." Computers & Education 63 (2013): 259-266.

To paraphrase, you rewrite someone else's ideas, in the same level of detail in your own words. An in-text citation is necessary, but quotation marks are only necessary if using exact phrasing.

In-text Citation Example:

As students increasingly use mobile devices in their education, publishers have quickly responded by providing more of their textbook titles in a digital format (Rockinson-Szapkiw et. al, 259). 

Works Cited

Rockinson-Szapkiw, Amanda J., et al. "Electronic versus traditional print textbooks: A comparison study on the influence of university students' learning." Computers & Education 63 (2013): 259-266.

To summarize, you are taking a larger concept and distilling it into your own words. Typically longer than a paraphrase, summarizing is a description of your understanding of the meaning and content. 

 

Example (From the University College of the University of Toronto paraphrasing and summarizing webpage):

Here is a summary of the passage from "An Anthropologist on Mars":

In "An Anthropologist on Mars," Sacks notes that although there is little disagreement on the chief characteristics of autism, researchers have differed considerably on its causes. As he points out, Asperger saw the condition as an innate defect in the child's ability to connect with the external world, whereas Kanner regarded it as a consequence of harmful childrearing practices (247-48).

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