24 Section Overview – Utilizing Sources

Because the nature of information sharing has changed so drastically in the last two decades (and more), it has become increasingly more meaningful for students in any discipline to understand the basic ethical and legal guidelines for using source information, both in and out of the classroom.

This section is designed to initiate you into the basic mysteries of intellectual property, including the basic concepts of licensing, plagiarism, citation, and methods of representing information from sources. However, the authors would like to point out at the outset that the materials related to citation, specifically MLA style, are here relatively limited and only intended as a general overview to be supplemented by more comprehensive existing open resources such as the Excelsior Online Writing Lab.

Here’s what you’ll learn to do in this section:

• Define “plagiarism,” and describe examples of it, how to avoid it, and why it is unethical and otherwise “bad.”
• Define “paraphrase,” “summary,” and “quotation.”
• Paraphrase and summarize without plagiarizing.
• Incorporate quotations into paragraphs.
• Define “citation” and determine whether information is cited.
• Cite sources of information in the text of a paragraph clearly and stylistically.
• Determine the licensing of a piece of intellectual property and use the material accordingly.
• Distinguish between “fair use” and licensed remixing in the context of the classroom.
• “Publish” a work under a Creative Commons license.
• Describe the difference between “citation” and “attribution” in the context of open licensing.