Running Head: ACADEMIC HONESTY AND PLAGIARISM 1

Running Head: ACADEMIC HONESTY AND PLAGIARISM 2
People are sometimes accused of plagiarism, and some are unaware that they are plagiarizing unintentionally. Therefore, it is important for someone to learn to use the correct citations and paraphrasing to avoid unintentional plagiarism. In a 2007 article Avoiding Unintentional Plagiarism, (Foster 2007) “Avoiding plagiarism is simple, but for most of us, writing is difficult” (page #2). According to Foster, to avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use another person’s idea, opinion, theory, facts, information and quotations of another person’s spoken words (page #1).
Foster is emphasizing that we must use proper citations in order to avoid plagiarism. Therefore, addressing the key elements of writing while to ensure academic honesty. For an example, one element is using the proper citation guidelines, therefore, “if you include a statement that is identical to the original work, either quote the material exactly and use quotation marks, or if you change words to better fit your style, omit the quotation marks but add the page number in the text citation” (page #1). The other element is telling the reader where the information came from, whether it’s referencing the author and article and or where you found it. By following this method, this will emphasis the originality of your work, therefore, giving the author credit.
While plagiarism is unethical, it is courteous to give the author credit. Foster emphasis that if we are presenting information that is not our own, it’s appropriate and ethical to let the reader know where our information came from (page #1). Therefore, citing the sources of the information used in an essay.

Running Head: ACADEMIC HONESTY AND PLAGIARISM 3
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