Learning about plagiarism can help us understand the essential purposes of research and writing: to share your voice, your experience, and your research with others. Research and writing are part of ongoing conversations in the subject areas of your courses. In academic writing, we identify authors and publications that we have encountered or found through research to show the connections we are making in that conversation.
In contrast to the purposes of research and writing, plagiarism is a presentation of the voices and experiences of other people without giving them credit. In order to avoid plagiarism, identify your sources of information and experience by their name and the date of their publication. At the end of your writing assignment, attach a list of sources with details including the authors complete names, title of their work, and publication details.
There are several formats for listing (or citing) sources that are based on values and practices in particular fields. The format defined by the American Psychological Association (APA) is used in several fields. In APA format, the author's name and publication date are used for an in-text citation. Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) has an explanation of various citation styles in a video here and a page with more detailed information on plagiarism here.
OWL Purdue's overview of plagiarism is here and FAQs are here.
To view the Southwestern College Policy on Academic Integrity, download the course catalog via this link. Then do a search (Ctrl-F) for Academic Integrity.