Page 366 - Keys To Community College Success

Writing the Conclusion

A conclusion brings your paper to a natural ending by summarizing your main points,
showing the significance of your thesis and how it relates to larger issues, calling the
reader to action, or looking to the future. Let the ideas in the body of the paper speak
for themselves as you wrap up.

Avoiding Plagiarism: Crediting Authors and Sources
Using another writer’s words, content, unique approach, or illustrations without credit-
ing the author is called plagiarism and is illegal and unethical. The following techniques
will help you properly credit sources and avoid plagiarism:

Make source notes as you go. Plagiarism often begins accidentally during research.
You may forget to include quotation marks around a quotation, or you may intend to
cite or paraphrase a source but never do. To avoid forgetting, write detailed source and
content notes as you research.

Learn the difference between a quotation and a paraphrase. A quotation
repeats a source’s exact words and uses quotation marks to set them off from the
rest of the text. A paraphrase is a restatement of the quotation in your own words,
and it requires that you completely rewrite the idea, not just remove or replace a
few words.

Use a citation even for an acceptable paraphrase. Credit every source that you
quote, paraphrase, or use as evidence (except when the material is considered common
knowledge). To credit a source, write a footnote or endnote that describes it, using the
format preferred by your instructor.

Understand that lifting material off the Internet is plagiarism. Words in
electronic form belong to the writer just as words in print form do. If you cut and
paste sections from a source document onto your draft, you are probably commit-
ting plagiarism. Key A.2 will help you identify what instructors regard as plagia-
rized work.

Students who plagiarize place their academic careers at risk, in part because cheat-
ing is easy to discover. Increasingly, instructors are using anti-plagiarism software
to investigate whether strings of words in student papers match those in a database.
Make a commitment to hand in your own work and to uphold the highest standards
of academic integrity.

Instructors consider the following types
KEY A.2 of work to be plagiarized

■ Submitting a paper from a website that sells or gives away research papers
■ Handing in a paper written by a fellow student or family member
■ Copying material in a paper directly from a source without proper quotation marks or source citation
■ Paraphrasing material in a paper from a source without proper source citation
■ Submitting the same paper in more than one class, even if the classes are in different terms or even
different years

328 Appendix A: The Writing Process