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Academic Integrity FAQ

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Academic Integrity FAQ

  1. What is the Project 1 "Gateway Quiz"? The Gateway activity surveys your understanding of Penn State's academic integrity policy and the citation and reference guidelines for this course. It is found under the Modules page in Canvas on the date published in the course calendar. Registered students need to complete the survey to unlock the Project 1 assignment folder in Canvas.
  2. What is an in-line citation? An in-line citation--sometimes called an in-text citation, a parenthetical citation, or parenthetical documentation--identifies the author and date of publication of a text that you have quoted or paraphrased. (A page number is included when the in-line citation refers to a quoted passage.) A full reference to the cited work appears in a list of references at the end of your project report. Examples appear in the Academic Integrity Guide.
  3. How do I know when I need to cite something? A rule of thumb is that you don't need to cite knowledge that you can explain in your own words without consulting another source. However, the credibility of your written work is increased when you cite credible references. This is true even when for elementary assignments in an introductory course such as this, and it is especially true in the graduate courses that follow. Therefore we ask that you include at least two proper in-line citations in each of your project assignments.
  4. What if I refer to the same source several times in the same paragraph? Usually you place an in-line citation at the beginning of a passage in which you paraphrase another work. If you paraphrase and cite one source, then another, and then return to the first source, you should cite the first source twice. If you cite the same work a page or two later, and there are no intervening citations, you can substitute "(Ibid.)".
  5. What if I use multiple sources written by the same author in the same year? Add letter suffixes to the year of publication--e.g., (Stroh, 2008a), (Stroh, 2008b) , and so on. Make sure the full citation in your reference list matches the in-line citation. In the full citation (the source list entry), you would repeat Stroh 2008a along with the appropriate source information. And, therefore, Stroh 2008b should have entirely different information.
  6. Where can I get more information on paraphrasing, quoting and plagiarism? Penn State Teaching & Learning with Technologies offers a Plagiarism Tutorial for Students.