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Syracuse University Libraries

Citation Guide: Plagiarism

Provides quick access to guidelines and examples of APA, MLA, and other often-used citation styles

at Syracuse University

 

Syracuse University considers plagiarism a serious offense. Refer to the Academic Integrity Office for current University policies & procedures concerning plagiarism and other violations of academic integrity.

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Plagiarism Overview from the OWL at Purdue

Have questions about what plagiarism is or about how to avoid it?     

Browse the following for help:

 

The above links are made available through The OWL at Purdue, an Online Writing Lab created and maintained by the English department at Purdue University

Avoiding Plagiarism - Tutorials

Here are some online tutorials designed to assist academic authors avoid plagiarism.  In addition to written and video explanations in these lessons, be sure to test yourself by completing practice exercises, where those appear:

Recognizing and Avoiding Plagiarism [Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences]

Turnitin @ SU Library

Turnitin at SU Library is the Library hosted version of Turnitin software whereby students can submit drafts of papers to check for possible instances of plagiarism before they submit final drafts to their course instructors.

Warning:  Automated plagiarism detection systems like Turnitin offer some accuracy in comparing the percentage of your content against other sources in order to arrive at a determination of originality.  Academic writing that is loaded with text copied from other sources is easily detected using systems like Turnitin.  However, such systems do not evaluate the extent and quality of your use of academic citation formats, proper attribution and referencing techniques, etc.  Sloppy practice in that area can also lead to accusations of plagiarism.  In addition, such automated systems do not cross-check against millions of pages of content held in hundreds of library subscription databases, nor do they cross-check against millions of pages of off-line books, manuscripts, etc.  Some have also raised privacy and copyright concerns regarding Turnitin to the extent student papers are saved in the Turnitin system.  Papers submitted to Turnitin via the S.U. Library Turnitin Blackboard space are not saved in the more global Turnitin database.