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Plagiarism

Take good notes & organize your research: “Cite as you write” (Ohio University Libraries, 2024), Use Tools: Use tools to keep track of where your information is coming from: Mendeley, Zotero, even notecards!, Paraphrase appropriately: Practice rewording things by reading a sentence you want to summarize, looking away, and saying it in your own words. Just changing one or two words is not paraphrasing! If you can’t paraphrase an idea, you may need to read more about the concept to understand it better.

If using someone else’s ideas without acknowledgement is plagiarism, does your professor expect you to come up with an entirely new idea that’s never been thought of in the history of biology? No! You’re an undergraduate. That’s unrealistic. Instead, you can contribute original ideas by: Comparing and discussing similarities & differences between findings of various studies Identifying areas where the current research may be inadequate Discussing points where the literature may conflict or acknowledging differences/debates between findings Drawing connections and identifying themes between studies Identifying gaps in the research that could benefit from further study, or acknowledging limitations in existing studies Discussing how treatment of a subject or best practices in a procedure have changed over time. Adapted from Harvard Guide to Using Sources