Citing sources and avoiding plagiarism

Posted by Lance Gravlee on October 13, 2009 
Filed Under Writing Assignments

This week you should be putting the finishing touches on the first submission of your research paper, which is due next Monday, Oct. 19. That makes it a good time to share with you a valuable new resource to help you cite sources correctly and avoid plagiarism.

Dr. Martin Simpson, Director of the UF Reading & Writing Center, has published a 30-minute video lecture with practical tips for improving your citation skills and avoiding plagiarism. He discusses key elements of the Student Conduct Code, identifies common types of plagiarism, and suggests concrete strategies for improving the use of sources in your writing. Dr. Simpson also addresses some common misconceptions about what constitutes plagiarism and contrasts the expectations for college-level writing with what you may have experienced in high school.

I encourage you to invest half an hour in watching Dr. Simpson’s video. While you’re at it, you may also want to view the other study skills videos produced the Reading & Writing Center, including those on time management, note-taking, and test-taking (Part 1, Part 2).

Comments

7 Responses to “Citing sources and avoiding plagiarism”

  1. Jordan on October 18th, 2009 10:36 am

    i cannot find a list of acceptable topics for this semester. i only found one from last year

  2. Lance Gravlee on October 19th, 2009 11:26 am

    @Jordan: The list of topics for the research paper is available in this document, which is linked from the syllabus. Also, because I inadvertently left the list from last year online, we will accept without penalty research papers written about a topic from last year’s list. I apologize for the confusion.

  3. Christy on October 19th, 2009 11:53 am

    I looked on the syllabus and it said the paper had to be 8-10 pages, but when I went to print out the rubric, it stated that the paper had to be 10-12 pages. I already wrote a full nine pages but I don’t want to be penalized for not writing enough. What is the correct number of pages necessary? -Thank you

  4. Lance Gravlee on October 19th, 2009 11:55 am

    @Christy: The paper should be 8–10 pages. In past semesters it was longer, and there were a few places where the materials we distributed (e.g., rubric) had not been updated. I apologize for the confusion.

  5. Sarah Sullivan on October 19th, 2009 12:14 pm

    I have a question about the actual paper topic. I know we are supposed to base our paper on one of the popular articles, but are we supposed to reference that atricle in our paper or just give information from the scholarly journal?

  6. Lance Gravlee on October 19th, 2009 12:14 pm

    @Sarah: You should cite the popular article, in addition to your scholarly references.

  7. Melanie on October 20th, 2009 9:18 am

    I was watching the Today show the other day and there was a segment on Maria Shriver’s new book “A Woman’s Nation”. I thought it might be a relevant subject to discuss in class since it concerns the changing sex roles between men and women when it comes to raising a family, earning money, etc. I don’t have a twitter account, so just thought I would leave a comment here about it.