Download the Student Handbook - Covenant Theological Seminary

APPENDIX A: USING AND DOCUMENTING SOURCESOne of the beauties of the academic community is that we learn from and build upon the work of others.We can use prior learning to advance to further learning; however, there is responsibility that goes withthis privilege. When we use and build upon the work of others, we must give credit to them for theirwork. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism and is an offense to academic integrity. 1The purpose of this tutorial is to clarify and reinforce a proper understanding of what does and does notconstitute plagiarism in a graduate school setting.Plagiarism, simply defined, is presenting the ideas of others as if they were one’s own. To avoidplagiarism, all members of the academic community are responsible “to identify for [their] readers eachpiece of information that [they] borrow from sources.” 2 Readers are alerted to information in a work thatis not original to the author of that work by proper documentation (as has been done here).There are three basic ways in which we use information from other sources: quotation, paraphrase, andsummary. In this tutorial we will look at proper use of each method in academic work. Whether youquote, paraphrase, or summarize information from other sources, you must properly credit the source forany and all information you borrow. In other words, remember that to paraphrase or summarize the workor ideas of another does not make that work or those ideas yours, so do not present them as such!QUOTATIONThe most obvious way to use information from another source is to quote it directly, word for word. Forexample, let’s take some information from Dan Doriani’s book on biblical interpretation, Getting theMessage, and show how we would use it as a quotation.1The Seminary’s academic integrity statement begins:“As part of our purpose to train servants of the triune God to walk with God in all of life, we expect godlyintegrity in the academic work done at Covenant Seminary. God’s covenant with His people calls for honesty and acommitment to truth (as in the ninth commandment). As we live in that covenant and in community with oneanother, upholding truth is an essential duty. Specifically applied to academic labors, this means that we accuratelyrepresent our work to others. In other words, neither cheating nor plagiarism is tolerated.”2Mary Lynch Kennedy and Hadley M. Smith, Reading and Writing in the Academic Community (EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1994), 59.[69]