Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

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Reading and note-taking

• In your notes, always mark someone else's words with a big Q, for quote, or use big quotation marks
• Indicate in your notes which ideas are taken from sources with a big S, and which are your own insights (ME)
• When information comes from sources, record relevant documentation in your notes (book and article titles; URLs from the internet)

Interviewing and conversing

• Take lots of thorough notes; if you have any of your own thoughts as you're interviewing, mark them clearly.
• If you're interviewing via email, retain copies of the interview subject's emails as well as the ones you send in reply.
• Make any additional, clarifying notes immediately after the interview has concluded.

Writing paraphrases or summaries

(See the box below for tips on paraphrasing)

• Use a statement that credits the source somewhere in the paraphrase or summary (e.g., According to [source here],...).
• If you're having trouble summarizing, try writing your paraphrase or summary of a text without looking at the original, relying only on your memory and notes.
• Check your paraphrase or summary against the original text; correct any errors in content accuracy, and be sure to use quotation marks to set off any exact phrases from the original text.
• Check your paraphrase or summary against sentence and paragraph structure, as copying those is also considered plagiarism.
• Put quotation marks around any unique words or phrases the author uses that you cannot or do not want to change and cite the author.

Writing direct quotations

• Keep the source author's name in the same sentence as the quote.
• Mark the quote with quotation marks, or set it off from your text in its own block, per the style guide your paper follows.
• Quote no more material than is necessary; if a short phrase from a source will suffice, don't quote an entire paragraph.
• Too many direct quotes from sources may weaken your credibility, as though you have nothing to say yourself, and will interfere with your own style.

Paraphrasing is using your own words to express the ideas of others. You still need to cite the source of the idea, but you don't need to use quotation marks.

To paraphrase, follow the steps below:

1. Read the original text until you grasp its meaning; then set it aside.

2. Using your memory, write down the main points or concepts. Do not copy the text verbatim.

3. Change the structure of the text by varying the opening, changing the order of sentences, lengthening or shortening sentences, etc.

4. Replace keywords within the sentences with synonyms or phrases with similar meanings.

5. Check your notes against the original to ensure you have not accidentally plagiarized.

Common knowledge means that it is information that can be found undocumented in a minimum of five different credible sources.

Common knowledge does not need to be cited. 

• Common knowledge consists of facts that are easily findable.

• No one person can take credit for them.

• However, this doesn't mean that everyone knows it, and it may be news to you.

Some examples of common knowledge:

• Kigali is the capital of Rwanda

• Las Cruces is located in the Chihuahuan desert, the largest desert of North America

• Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,100 year

By contrast

• If the idea or research is unique, you need to give credit.

• If the fact is hard to find, you want to indicate where it can be located.

When in doubt, cite your source!

• A conservative rule is to cite anything you did not know before you began your research.

• A more liberal standard is that anything that would be in a general encyclopedia is common knowledge.

• Different disciplines and professions have different standards for deciding what is common knowledge. Consult with your professors.

Adapted from New Mexico State University Library with permission.