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DOCUMENTING SOURCES

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WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
 Plagiarism is the act of using another
person’s words or ideas without
acknowledging that the person is your
source.
 It also occurs even when you acknowledge

the other person, if your re-written version


is too similar to the other person’s.

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WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
 When you borrow another person’s words
or ideas by quoting, paraphrasing or
summarizing them, you must show where
you got the ideas by putting certain
information in parenthesis immediately
after the material you have borrowed.

Source: Oshima & Hogue, 1999 3


Why is Plagiarism a serious offence?
 Plagiarizing amounts to STEALING other
people’s words
 Plagiarizing amounts to STEALING other

people’s ideas
 Plagiarizing can lead to failure and

expulsion from the university

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How do you avoid plagiarism?
 The key to avoiding plagiarism is to make sure you give credit
where it is due.
 Give credit when you :
– use words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song,
TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter,
advertisement, or any other medium
– gain information through interviewing or conversing with another
person, face to face, over the phone, or in writing
– copy the exact words or a unique phrase
– reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual
materials
– reuse or repost any electronically-available media, including images,
audio, video, or other media
(Quoted from “The owl at Purdue” website)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/02/
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How do you give credit correctly?
 Direct method
– Quotation
 Indirect method
– Paraphrasing, summarizing

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Quotation
 Quotation is taking exactly as what is
written from a published text, interview
transcripts, etc.
 Changing words or sentence structure from

the original source would mean it is no


longer a direct quote.

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Opinions supported by Statistics
 Statistics are good supporting details.
 Like quotations, the source of statistical

data must also be cited.


 Refer to handout: Platform, volume 4, no. 2,

July – December 2004, pg. 32

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Documenting sources:
 Refers to the practice of citing original
sources of information used in formal
reports, journal articles, books or any
documents that includes evidence from
published works.

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Documenting sources:
 Reasons:
a) readers can locate the original sources
and read them if they want.
b) writer is not personally responsible for
every fact in the document.
c) to avoid charges of plagiarism.

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Documenting sources:
 Document information when:
- using direct quotation from another source
- paraphrasing information from another
source.
 Do not document when:

- presenting generally known information


- readily available information from
dictionaries or encyclopedias.
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Documentation System:

Frequently used in natural sciences, social


sciences and technical fields are:
- America Psychological Association (APA)
system.
- Number-reference system.

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Conventions of the APA citation system:
 If an author’s name begins a sentence, place
the date of the work in parentheses
immediately after.
 If an author is not referred to directly in a

sentence, place both the author’s last name


and the year of publication, separated by a
comma, in parentheses.

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Conventions of the APA citation system:
 If there are multiple authors, cite all the
names up to six. If there are more than six
authors, cite only the first author and follow
with et al.
 If multiple authors are cited in parentheses,

separate names with commas, and use an


ampersand (&) between the last two names.

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Conventions of the APA citation system:
 If an author is referred to more than once in
a single paragraph, do not repeat the year in
parentheses as long as the second reference
clearly refers to the same author and date as
in the first reference.
 If you are using a direct quotation, state the

page numbers immediately after the


quotation.

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Conventions of the APA citation system:
 If you are citing two works by the same
author, published in the same year,
distinguish them by a, b, c and so on:
- Lucas (1987a, 1987b) refers to….
 If you are citing two works by the same

author, give the year of publication of both


works:
- Young (1979, 1984) disagree….

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Conventions of the APA citation system:
 If you are citing several works by different
authors in the same parentheses, list the
works alphabetically by first author:
- Several studies tested for side effects but
found no significant results (Bowman &
Johnson, 1990; Mullins, 1979; Roberts &
Allen, 1975; Townsend, 1988)

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Conventions of the APA citation system:
 Use last name only unless two authors have
the same surname; then include initials to
avoid confusion.
- W.S Caldwell (1993) and R.D Caldwell
(1988) reported varied effects ….
- Heightened effects were noted (R.D.
Caldwell, 1988; W.S Caldwell, 1993).

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Conventions of the APA citation system:
 Use an ellipsis (three spaced periods) to
indicate omissions from direct quotations.
- Bagwell (1998) commented, “This
handbook will not fulfill most needs of
statistician, but … model formulas are
excellent.” (p. 45)

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Conventions of the APA citation system:
 If the omission in a quotation comes at the
end of the sentence, use four periods to
close the quotation.
- According to Martin (1994), “Researchers
should inquire further into effects of
repeated exposure ….” (p. 30)

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Number-Reference System
 Organised in two ways:
1. List the items alphabetically by last
name of author.
2. List the items in the order they are cited
in the text.

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Conventions of the number-reference
system:
 Page numbers are included in the
parentheses, separate from the reference
number by a colon.
 Sentences may begin with “Reference 6

states…”. However, for readability, rewrite


as often as possible to include the reference
later in the sentence.

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