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Plagiarism is the technical term for stealing someone else's intellectual property. By copying and pasting and not giving credit to the author, you are committing plagiarism because you are stealing and passing someone else's work as your own. If something is considered "common knowledge" it does not need to be cited. Common knowledge refers to information that is readily available from a number of sources, or so well-known that its sources do not have to be cited. If you are not sure if something is common knowledge, or if it should be cited, then cite. Better safe than sorry!
Higher education institutions take this offense very seriously. Read OCCC's Policy No. 4016, Academic Integrity to see what happens if you commit plagiarism at OCCC.
After reviewing the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, you will find that the five standards break down as the following:
Your assignment this week in Moodle is to describe a scenario when you've needed information, this could be personal or academic related. Before you do your assignment, be sure to read the Information Literacy Standards below so you understand each standard and what falls into each standard.
This week you will be required to complete forum postings and the Information Literacy Exercise. Go to Moodle for details and assignment due dates.
A citation is how you tell your readers that certain material in your work came from another source. It also tells your readers exactly where they can read the source. For this course, we will be using MLA style citations.
Copyright is the legal right to reproduce, publish, and sell intellectual property. Authors are the only people who have the right to publish and sell their work. Copyright laws protect the owners from loss of potential income. The links below can offer additional information on copyright.