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Plagiarism

Using the work, words, opinions, theories, or ideas of others without properly giving credit is plagiarism. To avoid plagiarism, you must be diligent to use quotations and cite your sources. Paraphrasing is acceptable but still requires citation and changes from the original must be significant enough to take on your personal writing style (that is, it must 'sound' like you).

Citing Your Sources

  • Whenever you use words from another person or source you must give credit to the originator.
  • Whenever you utilize, suggest, or refer to an idea, opinion, theory, or concept from another source, you must give credit to that source.
  • Whenever you cite sources, you should provide all of the information about your source that is required by the type of citation style you are using.

Quoting Your Sources 

  • Whenever you use someone's words exactly as they were pronounced or written, you must put those words in quotation marks.
  • Changing only a few words does not avoid plagiarism. Either use the exact phrase with quotation marks or rewrite the phrase entirely.

For original research papers, quoting extensively from another source is generally not appropriate. Please consult with your professor if you are unsure about quotation length.

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Citation

Avoiding plagiarism requires the use of a consistent citation style. While there are many different citation style guides (e.g., MLA, APA, Chicago), the Seminary expects students to follow Turabian: