ES5000 Chap.6 APA Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism
APA Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism
Research and referencing
The Week 3 handout begins with research, defined broadly as systematic investigation to discover facts or gain new insight. It separates primary research, information you collect yourself through interviews, experiments, observations, simulations or surveys, from secondary research, which gathers what is already published in books, articles, websites and databases.
Referencing is how you tell the reader when you have used someone else's ideas, and the handout gives two reasons for it: credit to the original writer and credibility for your own ideas.
Two kinds of citation in one style
There are in-text citations, which in APA give the author's surname and the year, and end-of-text references, which give the full details.
Every in-text citation must have a matching entry in the list.
The course requires APA seventh edition and supplies two APA guides: one setting out, element by element, how to reference a journal article, a book or a chapter in an edited book, and one giving examples of many other source types, from reports and conference sessions to videos and web pages, each keyed to a section of the APA manual.
How plagiarism happens
Following Reid, the handout names three ways: copying words without quotation marks, the patch job that changes a few words of a copied passage, and a genuine paraphrase with no reference.
It also warns that relying too heavily on quotation and paraphrase makes a text sound as if you have few ideas of your own.
The plagiarism warning in the handout sets out the possible consequences, ranging from no mark for the work to failing the course and disciplinary action.
AI tools and the declaration
The course outline states that representing an AI tool's output as your own work, without acknowledging the tool, is plagiarism.
Every assignment therefore ends with the course's declaration, pasted after the references, in which you state that you used no AI tool or name the tool and tick the purposes you used it for.
One disagreement to resolve
The referencing handout lists the publisher's city as part of a reference, while the APA seventh edition guide says not to include the publisher location.
Follow the seventh edition, which is the style the course requires.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Primary and secondary research
- 02
Why writers reference: credit and credibility
- 03
In-text citations: narrative, parenthetical, direct quotation
- 04
Reference list entries in APA seventh edition
- 05
Copying, patch writing and uncredited paraphrase
- 06
AI use, the declaration and the publisher-location conflict
Worked example · free
Formatting a book reference in APA seventh edition
- 2Order the elements: author, year, title, edition, publisher.
- 2Apply sentence case and italics to the title.
- 2Place the edition and drop the publisher location.
Key terms
- In-text Citation
- The short reference inside a sentence, giving the author's surname and year, and a page number for quotations.
- Reference List
- The full list of cited sources at the end of a text, each entry matching an in-text citation.
- Primary Research
- Information collected directly by the researcher through interviews, experiments, observations, simulations or surveys.
- Secondary Research
- Information gathered from existing published sources such as books, journal articles, websites and databases.
- Patch Writing
- Copying a passage and changing or adding a few words, producing text that is neither a quotation nor a paraphrase.
- Digital Object Identifier
- A permanent identifier for a published work, included in an APA reference whenever the work has one.
APA Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism FAQ
Which referencing style does the course require?
APA, seventh edition. The referencing handout states it for all writing assignments, and the course supplies an APA guide to the main reference patterns and a set of examples covering many types of source.
Is changing a few words of a copied sentence enough to avoid plagiarism?
No. The handout calls this a patch job: the result is not a quotation and not different enough to be a paraphrase. Either quote the passage exactly with quotation marks and a citation, or rewrite it fully in your own words and still cite it.
Should a reference include the city where the book was published?
Not in APA seventh edition. The course's APA guide says not to include the publisher location, even though an older line in the referencing handout lists the city. Follow the seventh edition, which is the required style.
Do I have to declare AI tools if I only used them for ideas?
Yes. The declaration asks you to name the tool and tick each purpose, and brainstorming ideas is one of the listed purposes. The outline treats presenting AI output as your own without acknowledgement as plagiarism, so declaring accurately protects you.
Assessment move
Build your reference list as you research, not at the end. Each time you save a source, write its full APA entry immediately and add one line on what you will use it for; the list will then check your in-text citations rather than the other way round.
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