Open Licenses Librarian, Arts & Humanities Team Librarian
Ways to Avoid Plagiarism
A Note about Plagiarism
It is important to cite your sources properly. If you want to learn more about avoiding plagiarism, read the Plagiarism Guide.
When you are writing your paper, you can use several ways to present information you have found in the body of your paper, and consciously avoid plagiarizing.
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Direct quote
If you want to use a sentence or a passage exactly as it was written, you can include a direct quote, surrounded by quotation marks, and either using an inline citation, or a sentence before the quote referencing the author and work of origin.
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Summary
You can also write a summary (in your own words of course) of the ideas or text you want to use. It helps to write the summary from your memory rather than looking directly at the passage.
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Paraphrase
Paraphrasing is similar to a summary. It just means taking what you have read and rewriting it in your own words.
| Google Scholar
Google Scholar can be a useful tool when collecting research information. Settings can be updated to display:
Library Links - FindIt@Txstate
Bibliography Manager - EndNote (refers to Desktop EndNote)
- Ulrich'sTo find out if a journal is considered Refereed/Peer-Reviewed, check the Ulrich's database by doing a search for the title of the journal. Many library databases allow searches to be limited to articles published in Peer-Reviewed journals.
Understanding a Journal Citation
You'll see something like this:
It's important to know the parts of a citation so you can interpret it correctly. You must have at least the Journal name, volume, issue, and page number to be able to locate the article.
| Citation Management
Have a lot of citations you want to enter in your works cited/references list? Try a citation manager.
Do you need the Web or Desktop version?
- EndNoteA citation management tool that enables you to:
- Organize your research Include citations while you write your paper
- Build a bibliography in a variety of formats
- Import references from library databases and Google Scholar.