Great Resources to Teach Students about Plagiarism and Citation Styles James Smith

1. Great Resources to Teach Students about Plagiarism and Citation Styles There are number of resources available online that can help to incorporate the knowledge regarding plagiarism and citation styles to the students. However, we go into these resources, let us first discuss what are plagiarism and citations and why are they important in academics. First, let us talk about plagiarism. Plagiarism can be defined in various ways but the most basic definition is that it is the copy of one’s work to be used under someone else’s name without prior permission or acknowledgement. According to the laws in all the countries around the world, plagiarism is a criminal offense and any offenders, if proven guilty of deliberate plagiarism, can even be put into jail in addition to termination from any institution he / she is associated with. Plagiarism is very common among unethical researchers who are unable to reach any conclusion in their own research and publish other researchers’ work without consent. Several such cases have been detected and suitable penalty and punishment have been given to the same. However, treating plagiarism cases in academic level brings about a number of questions regarding how the cases need to be handled instead of just criminalize the subject before initiating legal proceedings. This is mainly because the

2. students are very much inexperienced and are often not aware of plagiarism and its consequences. It is important to teach the students about plagiarism in early stages of education so that they can learn what plagiarism is, what its implications are and what they can do to avoid it in their work. There are several online tools and websites that are helpful, some of which are listed as follows. Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Plagiarism.org Now, as taught to the students, one of the safest way to avoid plagiarism in their works is to acknowledge the sources from where they have taken information in the form of citations. The students are taught to cite any sources that they have used in their work. Now, there are several styles of citations that are used by different educational universities and the students have to be aware of these styles. Some of the helpful tools for citations in different styles include: Writer's Handbook: Chicago Citation Style Documentation Writer's Handbook: MLA Citation Style Documentation Writer's Handbook: AMA Citation Style Documentation Writer's Handbook: APSA Documentation These tools provide detailed guide on different styles of citations for the students. The teachers in the academic institutions need to utilize these tools for providing lessons to the students regarding correct ways of citations.

3. Above all these points, the teachers need to raise awareness among the students regarding plagiarism. Plagiarism has become a serious crime in the modern world with thousands of such cases every year globally. Higher educational universities are already taking strict actions, often expelling students guilty of plagiarism. Hence, the lessons should start from grass root level regarding awareness against plagiarism. Source: Source:https://gumroad.com/jamesmith/p/great-resources-to-teach-stude nts-about-plagiarism-and-citation-styles