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Citation and Style Guides

Academic Integrity Policy: Union County College

Union County College's Academic Integrity Policy

The College's complete statement on Academic Integrity is contained in the Student Handbook.

The following is extracted from it:

There is the expectation that students will present as their own work only that which they have done themselves. The College will not condone academic dishonestly at any time, whether it be plagiarizing (the act of representing someone else’s ideas as your own) or cheating by any means during a test, an examination or in any work intended to be done independently.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism by Citing Your Sources

Ideas in words, ideas, pictures, interview, conversations, etc. created by someone else that are presented by you (in any format), need to be documented. Once you take this idea and present it in any medium, be it print, video, audio, etc. you will need to document the source. An exception would be “common knowledge,” meaning something known by most people.

There are usually three ways to present someone else’s original work in your written paper:

  1. Quoting
    A quotation must use the exact words of the source. If the quotation is relatively short (usually fewer than 3 lines or 40 words), those words must be enclosed in quotation marks, with the creator’s information in parentheses ( ), usually at the end of the statement. Longer passages need block quotations.  
  2. Paraphrasing
    By using different wording, but still presenting the same idea, a paraphrase may be created. Usually paraphrasing is used to make the idea more succinct, using fewer words, or to clarify the original concept. Just changing a couple of words in not acceptable paraphrasing.
  3. Summarizing
    Giving the major points of a concept in a briefer format is summarizing. Many of the details are left out, but the main ideas remain.

More about these strategies can be found at “Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing” in Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab.

Union County College: Plagiarism Policy

Any UCC student who is found guilty in violation of academic integrity by a faculty member is subject to any or all of the following actions:

  •  A grade of F for the work in question.
  • Any other action deemed appropriate by the faculty member, including lowering of the final grade for the course and/or makeup work.
  • Immediate and complete failure for the course.
  • A Censure or Probation initiated by the faculty member and enacted by the Dean of Student Development Office. This includes the creation of a file in the student's name with full documentation of the act of academic dishonesty.
  • Upon the recommendation of the Academic Vice President, immediate dismissal fromthe College. This decision may be appealed to the Judicial Committee.

Interactive Plagiarism Tutorial

Interactive Plagiarism Tutorial 

This tutorial will help you avoid plagiarism by providing examples that explain how to properly include information from other sources in one’s own scholarly work .

UCC LibGuides at Union County College