HPU Librarians are always happy to help you with your citation questions! If you have questions that are related to general writing style or to writing in a particular discipline, we recommend that you utilize the resources below.
Citation may seem like a bunch of rules designed to make writing your paper even more difficult. However, the purpose of citation is primarily to show how your work fits into the larger conversation taking place on your particular topic and to help facilitate the exchange of ideas between scholars (that means you, too!). Citation also ensures that the original authors or originators of an idea receive proper credit for their work.
What does this mean for you?
According to the JCSU Honor Code, students must pledge that their work is their own, and that they will not cheat, or represent the words, ideas, or projects of others as their own.
But what does it mean to plagiarize something?
Plagiarism involves quoting or paraphrasing without proper acknowledgment. You plagiarize if you submit, without appropriate documentation or quotation marks:
Summary: You plagiarize when you take credit for someone else's work, either on purpose or by accident.
You can also plagiarize yourself. Called "self-plagiarism," this occurs if you reuse work from one course in another course without your instructors' permission. This is considered academic dishonesty.
Citation managers can help you keep track of the articles, books, and other resources that you find, as well as help you cite them in the appropriate style in the text of your paper and in your references or works cited list. For more help with citation managers, ask a librarian!
The JCSU University Honor Code states:
I pledge that this work is my own, and I will not cheat, or represent the words, ideas, or projects of others as my own. I further pledge that I will not engage in academic dishonesty, which includes lying, stealing, or assisting others in misrepresenting their work. As a member of the student body of Johnson C. Smith University, I also pledge to report all violations of the Honor Code that I observe in others. I understand that violations of the Honor Code are subject to disciplinary procedures by the University. Students and faculty are to govern themselves by the Honor Code to ensure the greatest measure of academic integrity.
The University Honor Code must be observed and acknowledged by students in relation to class assignments, including out-of-class assignments, tests, and written papers, as well as other assignments that involve student assessment. Student assessment may extend beyond classrooms and includes all applied academic settings of the University. Plagiarism is defined as stealing and passing off as one’s own (i.e., without proper citation) ideas and writings of another. For other activities, dishonesty includes serious infractions of assignment rules. In cases of dishonesty involving major assignments (examinations, major written assignments, and other assignments of comparable magnitude), the required penalty may be automatic failure of the course. The instructor must notify immediately the student, the Department Chair, and the College Dean about this failure. The student may not withdraw from the course.
In cases involving less serious infractions of major assignment rules or in cases of dishonesty involving less important class activities (e.g., quizzes, a class discussion), the instructor may give a lesser academic penalty. Students may appeal to the University Judiciary Board if they feel they were unfairly accused of dishonesty. The University Judiciary Board makes the final decision on the issue of whether or not the student was dishonest, but it cannot change the penalty when the student is found to be dishonest. It is essential that the instructor, at the beginning of each term, make students aware of the definitions of dishonesty found in this Catalog and of the penalties for dishonesty. This is especially important in the case of plagiarism.
JCSU Catalog 2019-2020 - Honor Code is on page 67
The most common form of plagiarism when it comes to resources and research is misrepresentation of the work of others as one's own and using someone else's ideas or words without giving credit
How can you avoid plagiarism? By carefully citing your sources when you use them in your assignments. This includes when you quote directly from a source, when you paraphrase or summarize a source's information, and even when you use an idea from a source. You must cite the source in the text of your paper and also in a PowerPoint presentation and have a works cited page, which lists all the sources you used.