As per the YCCC 2024–2025 COLLEGE CATALOG:
The College promotes and maintains high ethical standards of academic conduct. It is College policy to discourage academic misconduct via appropriate administrative penalties. Academic misconduct includes but is not limited to: cheating or dishonesty of any kind in performing academic work; plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional; and receiving, or attempting to receive, academic credit under false pretenses; submitting the same work in more than one course, without prior permission of the instructor of the second course, or assisting anyone engaged in academic misconduct.
As plagiarism is a serious form of academic misconduct, students must take action to avoid it. Keep the following tips in mind:
- Understand Plagiarism: Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally. It includes copying text, ideas, images, or other creative and intellectual works without providing proper credit.
- Properly Cite Your Sources: Whether you are paraphrasing, summarizing, or quoting, always give credit to the original author.
- Paraphrase Effectively: Don't copy and paste sentences, even if you exchange a word or two. If you aren't making a direct quote, you must change the structure and wording to reflect your own understanding. Use synonyms and different sentence structures to avoid simply rearranging the original text. Cite the source when paraphrasing; even if you've rewritten the information, you still need to acknowledge the original author.
- Develop Original Ideas: Think critically and form your own conclusions. Don't just regurgitate information from your sources. You must analyze and interpret it. Add your own insights and perspectives: Share your unique understanding of the topic.
- Manage Your Sources: Keep track of your sources as you research: This will make it easier to cite them accurately later. Use a system that allows you to easily locate information and citations.
Check out this Quick Guide to Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing Properly to Avoid Plagiarism
