Citations / Avoiding Plagiarism - Graduate Writing Center

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Citations / Avoiding Plagiarism


What is plagiarism?

The word “plagiarism” evokes a shudder in most, and rightly so: it has been and continues to be a problem in all fields, including publishing, the media, politics, and academia. The NPS Academic Honor Code defines “plagiarism” as

the use of words, information, insights, or ideas of another without crediting that person through proper citation. Unintentional plagiarism, or sloppy scholarship, is academically unacceptable; intentional plagiarism is dishonorable. You can avoid plagiarism by fully and openly crediting all sources used.

Why do we cite?

Writers and inventors have the right to be recognized and rewarded for their work. If others can claim credit for your prose and ideas, you are likely to be less inclined to create and share. Academia, in particular, depends on sharing ideas through writing. For more thoughts on the importance of citing, see our page on that subject.

Our goal is to help you be confident and not be a headline

The following resources will give you the basic knowledge you need to avoid plagiarism and produce professional work:

  1. Watch the Thesis Processing Office's short video "Plagiarism: Don't Be a Headline" (5:27) to get an idea of how pervasive and harmful plagiarism is.
     
  2. At the same time, recognize that attribution encompasses much more than simply “not getting in trouble”—that it enriches the content and credibility of your work—and that, for this reason and others, plagiarism detection software, while useful, is by no means a substitute for internalizing and applying scholarly best practices for using sources. See our iThenticate FAQ for more information.
     
  3. Give yourself a solid foundation in properly adding source material to your work by reviewing the following resources:

Citation and Anti-plagiarism Tools

  1. Get comfortable with citing responsibly in your department's or program's preferred or required citation style:
  1. Visit the NPS Citation Guide for rules and examples of how to cite documents such as journal articles, GAO reports, military field manuals, and official memorandums.
     
  2. Learn citation-management software such as Zotero to help you keep track of sources and more easily add citations to your work. Visit DKL’s Zotero page or attend the library's workshop.
     
  3. Make your work more sophisticated with source blending (paraphrasing, quoting, and summarizing)
     
  4. Determine if your material is copyrighted and how to apply fair use by borrowing images, tables, and figures fairly (scroll down for handout).
     
  5. Learn how to paraphrase and quote bulleted and numbered lists and how to cite equations in IEEE (scroll down for handouts).
     
  6. Recycle or reuse your own previously published work properly using the self-plagiarism handout (scroll down).
     
  7. Prepare to ace the iThenticate plagiarism review of your Initial Review with the Thesis Processing Office by following the advice contained in the handout and reviewing the GWC’s iThenticate FAQ.
     
  8. Based on your audience, determine if information in your writing requires citation with help from our common knowledge infographic.

Want to know more?

A–Z content heading

Writing Topics A–Z


This index links to the most relevant page for each item. Please email us at writingcenter@nps.edu if we're missing something!

A–Z content menu

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

A

abbreviations

abstracts

academic writing

acronyms

active voice

adjectives, compound

advisor, selecting and working with

AI

apostrophes

appointment with GWC coaches, how to schedule

argument

article usage

artificial intelligence

assignments, understanding them

audience

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B

body paragraphs

booking an appointment with a GWC coach

brackets, square

brainstorming

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C

capitalization

citations

charts

ChatGPT

citation software

citation styles

clauses

clarity

clustering

coaching, about

coaching, how to schedule

colons

comma splices

commas, FANBOYS

commas, introductory

commas, list

commas, nonessential / nonrestrictive information

commas, Oxford

commas, serial

common knowledge

commonly confused words

compare-and-contrast papers

compound adjectives / modifiers

concision

conclusions

conference presentations

conjunctive adverbs

coordinating conjunctions

copyright and fair use

critical thinking

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D

dangling modifiers

dashes

dependent clauses

dependent marker words

display equations

distance learning

double submission of coursework

drafting

Dudley Knox Library

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E

editing your own work

editing: outside editors

em dash

en dash

equations

exclamation points

executive summary

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F

FANBOYS

FAQs

figures

first person, use of in academic writing

footnotes

fragments

free-writing

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G

generative artificial intelligence (AI)

gerunds

grammar

graphics

graphs

group writing

GWC appointment, how to schedule

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H

homophones

Honor Code, NPS

human subjects research

hyphens

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I

ibid.

incomplete sentences

independent clauses

Institutional Review Board

interviews, conducting

introductions

IRB

iThenticate

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J

Joining the Academic Conversation

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L

LaTeX

library liaisons

lists, syntax of

literature reviews

logic and analysis

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M

M dash

making a GWC appointment

mathematics

memos

methodology

modifiers, compound

modifiers, misplaced

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N

N dash

nominalizations

note-taking

noun clusters

numbers

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O

organization

outlining

Oxford comma

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P

paragraph development

parallelism

paraphrasing

parentheses

parts of speech

passive voice

periods

persuasion

phrases vs. clauses

plagiarism, how to avoid

plagiarism-detection software

plain language

polishing

prepositional phrases

prepositions

pronouns, clarity with

pronouns, grammar of

proofreading

publishing

punctuation

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Q

questionnaires, administering

questions

quotation marks

quoting

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R

Reading with Intent I

Reading with Intent II

redundancies

reference software

reflection papers

research

research guides, discipline-specific

research questions

restrictive vs. nonrestrictive information

reusing papers

reverse outlining

revision

roadmaps

run-on sentences

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S

scheduling a GWC appointment

self-citing

semicolons

sentence fragments

serial comma

signal phrases

significance

so what?

source blending

sources, engaging with / critiquing

sources, evaluating the reliability of

sources, citing

spelling

standard essay structure

STEM / technical writing

Strategic Reading I

Strategic Reading II

style

subject–verb agreement

subjects, grammatical

subordinating conjunctions

summarizing

surveys, administering

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T

tables

teams, writing in

technical writing

tense

that vs. which

thesis advisor, selecting and working with

thesis process overview

Thesis Processing Office (TPO)

thesis proposals: common elements

thesis statements

thesis writing

this, that, these, those

tone, professional

topic sentences

transitions

types of papers

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U

United States or U.S.?

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V

verbs and verb tense

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W

which vs. that

why write?

writer’s block

writing in groups / teams

writing process

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Z

Zotero

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