Ivy Tech's Code of Student Rights & Responsibilities includes an "Academic Misconduct, Academic Integrity, & Professional Behavior" policy that defines various types of academic dishonesty, one of which is plagiarism, defined as "Presenting within one’s own work the ideas, representations, or words of another person without customary and proper acknowledgment of that person’s authorship."
In other words, if a writer includes the words or ideas of another source (including general Google searches) but does not properly give credit to that source, plagiarism has occurred. Often, plagiarism happens accidentally as a result of improper documentation white quoting, paraphrasing, or citing sources. However, plagiarism can also occur if a student submits a piece of writing partially or entirely written by someone else and/or generative AI, and presents it as their own.
The resources below can help you learn and practice how to successfully include and cite source material in your writing and, as a result, avoid plagiarism.
There are three primary ways to include source material in your writing, all of which require an in-text citation to properly attribute credit to the original source:
Quoting Source Material
A quotation is a direct, word-for-word copy of source material. Quotation marks (" ") are used to let readers know that material within the quotation marks is identical to the original source.
Paraphrasing Source Material
A paraphrase showcases some detail about a source's ideas, but it is written in the writer's own words. Paraphrases are often shorter than a direct quote because they only capture the most important details.
Summarizing Source Material
A summary is also written in the writer's own words, but instead of capturing specific, nuanced details like a paraphrase, summaries showcase big-picture context about a source's main ideas.
When source material is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized within a document, writers are responsible for including an in-text citation and bibliography entry for that source.
Please use the APA Style and MLA Style tabs on the left to learn how to format these citations for source material.
