Practicing Integrity
It is your responsibility as a student to conduct your research and document your process in the manner that adheres to the university’s standards of academic integrity.
Just as all communities have their own codes of behaviour, so too do academic communities. Different disciplines may have differing ways of acknowledging influences, sources, and ideas.
Your instructor is your best source of guidance on how you should document and acknowledge sources within the context of a particular assignment.
Click the sections below to review some general guidelines for practicing academic integrity.
In-text Citation
1. In footnotes, endnotes, or parentheses
Example using parentheses: The popular social media site Twitter has yet to receive much scholarly attention (Asur & Huberman, 2010).
Example using footnote: It has been contended that the popular social media site Twitter has yet to receive much scholarly attention.1
2. In the main portion of a sentence in your text.
Example: Asur and Huberman (2010) contend that the popular social media site Twitter has yet to receive much scholarly attention.
Example #1 emphasizes the idea being referenced, while #2 gives more prominence to its author(s). Both approaches meet the requirements of academic integrity. When deciding which approach to take with your citation formatting, also consider the following:
- Has your instructor indicated which citation style to use in the assignment?
- Does the field or discipline in which you’re writing show a preference for one method over the other?
For more information about incorporating sources into the text of your document, consult the Essay Structure module. Learn more about how to create bibliographies via the Creating Bibliographies module.
1Asur, S., Huberman, B.A. (Aug. 2010). “Predicting the future with social media”. In Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT), 2010 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, vol. 1, p. 492-499. IEEE
Report Speech Responsibly
How you report on another author’s original speech will influence the accuracy of your reader’s perception of that author’s ideas. For your instructors, it will affect how they perceive the quality and honesty of your work.
To ensure that you report speech with integrity, imagine how the original speaker would respond to your presentation of their words. If they would feel the need to correct your interpretations of their ideas, then reconsider your use of their original speech.
When reporting on the original speech of another author, aim for the following:
- to the best of your ability, respect the meanings intended by the original speaker
- clearly attribute each cited speech to the precise source, author, location, or venue associated with it
Common Knowledge
- If in doubt, cite. The consequences of citing too much or of citing sources that aren’t ideal because they’re outdated or not scholarly are preferable to the consequences of under-citation and plagiarism.
- Always attribute arguments. Acknowledge the authors of theories, assertions, hypotheses, and findings in recognition of the intellectual effort and ability that went into formulating them.
- Seek advice from your instructors. Ask your instructors questions about what, how, where, and when to cite sources. They will be able to provide specific advice if you provide them with examples to consider.
To learn more, review What is Common Knowledge? located in Resources.
Paraphrasing
Example 1:
Dunlop (2009) has noted the positive correlation between multigenerational households and family health.
Example 2:
The impact of climate change on northern communities has not yet been fully understood (Bhash, 2010).
To learn more about paraphrasing, visit the Essay Structure module.
Summarizing
Summarizing can include anything from a short overview of a text’s topic, to a much longer and more in-depth report on the details of an author’s arguments.
Like any other reported speech, summarizing requires you to identify the source(s) of the idea(s) using an appropriate in-text citation style.
Example 1:
Studies have suggested the importance of metadiscourse in casual conversation (Schiffrin, 1980), school textbooks (Crismore, 1989), oral narratives (Norrick, 2001), science popularizations (Crismore and Farnsworth, 1990), undergraduate textbooks (Hyland, 2000)…
Example 2:
J. Baird Callicott, in his now-famous essay, “Animal Liberation: A Triangular Affair,” brings a supercharged version of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic to the debates surrounding the moral status of animals, arguing that the individual organism is an inappropriate object for moral concern.
Direct Quotation
Writers identify direct quotation by using quotation marks and in-text citation. It is necessary to identify their specific location within the source (for example, page numbers in texts or minute marks in videos). Here are some examples of how direct quotations may be integrated into an author’s work. Note how the quotations are marked and the exact location identified.
Example 1:
The prevalence of weak ties is a modern phenomenon, and as many commentators have noted, “The platforms of social media are built around weak ties” (Gladwell, 2010, p. 42).
Example 2:
Smit’s (2004) book explores the idea of conceptualizing writing as a social practice. He considers it obvious that writing is social “in the sense that we share a language with others, and we share a common set of conventions” (p. 77).
To learn more about using direct quotations, visit the Essay Structure module.