Materials Science & Engineering

From the ACS Website:

Founded in 1876 and chartered by the U.S. Congress, we are the world’s largest scientific society. Our mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people. Our vision is to improve people’s lives through the transforming power of chemistry.

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is a style primarily used in engineering.

In IEEE, your citations are in text in bracketed numbers, and your bibliography is at the end on a new page with the heading References.

From Purdue Online Writing Lab:

CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style) is most commonly used to cite sources within history and the arts.

Chicago has two main options for citations and bibliography: Author Date and Notes Bibliography. In Author Date style, your citations will be in text in parentheses, and your bibliography will be at the end on a page called References. In Notes Bibliography style, your citations will either be footnotes or endnotes, and your bibliography will be at the end on a page called Bibliography.

When you use other's ideas and words without giving them credit, you are plagiarising their work. The University of Utah Regulations Library defines plagiarism, along with cheating, as academic misconduct:

University of Utah Policy 6-410: Academic Conduct and Professional and Ethical Conduct),

"II. B.  “Academic misconduct” includes, but is not limited to, cheating, misrepresenting one's work, inappropriately collaborating, plagiarism, and fabrication or falsification of information, as defined further below. It also includes facilitating Academic Misconduct by intentionally helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of Academic Misconduct."

II. B. 3. "Plagiarism" means the intentional unacknowledged use or incorporation of any other person's work in, or as a basis for, one's own work offered for academic consideration or credit or for public presentation. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, representing as one's own, without attribution, any other individual's words, phrasing, ideas, sequence of ideas, information or any other mode or content of expression."

How can you avoid plagiarism? Below are some tips

READ THE SOURCE IN ITS ENTIRETY

• It's easy to take something out of context if you only read a portion of it! If you read the entire source, you should have a better feel of the author's meaning.

TAKE DETAILED NOTES AS YOU READ

• Anytime you note something word-for-word, immediately place it in quotation marks. Also note what page or section you found it on.
• On each page, make sure you note the original source and the date you accessed the source. This will make citation much easier, especially if you are working with multiple sources or doing research over a long stretch of time.
• Try not to mix your own thoughts and commentary with excerpts from your source. Keep them on separate pages, draw two columns on your page, or switch your pen color.
• If you find it difficult to take notes with electronic sources - or if you find yourself drawn to the copy-paste method - print out your sources and deal with them in print form.

RETURN TO YOUR NOTES LATER

• In order to do this, you must not procrastinate on your projects. If you don't have sufficient time, you won't do your best work, and it may lead you to make poor decisions when including your sources. Remember, if you get caught plagiarizing, the situation or your intentions won't be an excuse. Build in time to synthesize and properly work in your sources.
• Identify which sources are best for inclusion. Understand when you have to cite. Then decide whether you should directly quote, summarize, or paraphrase. If you are directly quoting, double-check your notes against the source for accuracy. If you are summarizing or paraphrasing:
  • Make sure the source is fresh in your mind, but not right in front of you. If you see the original text, you are more likely to want to use their terms and sentence structure.
  • Check your writing against the original. Remember, you should have changed the sentence structure and the language but the meaning of the source should still be the same. Any language that is unique to the source should be placed in quotation marks or removed. You may find it necessary to do several edits.

CONSULT WITH THE EXPERTS
If you need a second opinion, ask!  Ask a librarian, a classmate, the Writing Center, or your professor.

Thank you to Butler University for use of their Plagiarism guide.

The University Writing Center is here to help you become a more confident writer by providing individual consultations with peer tutors.  We work on papers from all disciplines - not just writing classes. Best of all, the Writing Center is a FREE service to students and faculty of the University of Utah.

The University Writing Center is located on the 2nd floor of the Marriott Library in room 2701.
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