Research and Plagiarism
Writing is absolutely central to English studies. You'll be required to write at least one essay in all of your English courses, and a great deal of your grade will rely on how well you master writing skills. Especially in literature courses, you will be expected to write academic essays that incorporate other people's work. You'll be doing research, that is, to find work that complements your own in various ways, and then using that work to bolster your own arguments and claims. Therefore you'll also need to learn how to cite the work of others properly, since not to do so counts as one form of plagiarism. The standard form of citation in English is the Modern Language Association's, found in the MLA Handbook or online at various sites – one of the best is Purdue University's.
It's important to cite properly because you should always give credit to those whose work has helped yours. Citation allows your own readers to follow your research and find resources that may have escaped them. It also enables readers to verify your research and check your facts. More importantly, not to cite is a breach of ethics – in effect, a form of theft.
Deliberate plagiarism can take a few forms:
- The deliberate failure to cite facts found in the work of others.
- The deliberate passing off of others' work as your own – this includes purchasing or copying an essay or parts of an essay and passing it in as if it were your own work.
- The deliberate use of an essay you have written for another course as if it were written for that assignment – also known as self-plagiarism.
Sadly, plagiarism is rife on many university campuses nowadays. The free exchange of ideas and information rests on a basis of mutual trust, a trust that plagiarism endangers. It's crucial that you realize that plagiarism is ethically wrong and that it will be severely punished if discovered.