Citation Guide: Plagiarism Basics

According to the Meadville Lombard Student Handbook, "Plagiarism is using any source in work submitted for evaluation and grading without proper acknowledgment...To avoid plagiarizing, you must properly acknowledge your sources through citations," whether you are:

• Directly quoting a source
• Paraphrasing someone else’s words
• Borrowing ideas or facts
• Quoting, paraphrasing, or borrowing words or ideas that YOU previously published/submitted in an assignment/delivered in a sermon/etc.*

For more guidance on when it is necessary to cite, please refer to the Should I cite this? figure on this page.

If a professor suspects a student of plagiarizing materials, they must follow the protocol as laid out on pages 45-46 of the Student Handbook. Here is a summary:

• “Ordinarily, violations of academic integrity [including plagiarism] are discovered by the faculty member who has the authority to confront a student, assess the gravity of the instance, and determine the academic consequences within the course in question, up to and including the assignment of a failing grade.”

• Regardless of the gravity of the instance, all instances of plagiarism will be reported to the Senior Director of Contextual Ministry (SDCM) and the VP of Academic & Student Affairs (VPASA)

• If warranted, the SDCM and VPASA can decide to suspend or dismiss the student, in which case the student can appeal the decision to the President**

               *Meadville Lombard Theological School, “Student Handbook 2024/2025,” 2024, 39-40, https://files.meadville.edu/files/resources/2024-2025-student-handbook.pdf.

**Meadville Lombard Theological School, “Student Handbook 2024/2025,” 45-46.

Artificial Intelligence, like all tools, can be used for good or bad ends. It is totally acceptable to utilize AI-powered search tools or Generative AI as a sort of reference assistant to do tasks such as:

• Brainstorming ideas
• Finding synonyms or definitions
• Summarizing large amounts of text
• Finding specific data points in large pools of data
• Rewriting a run-on sentence you have already written
• Etc.

On the other hand, there are instances where the use of Generative AI can violate Meadville Lombard's Academic Integrity policy. As a student at Meadville Lombard Theological School, any work that you submit—whether a paper, sermon, or even something as relatively informal as a discussion post—must be your own work. Just as you cannot plagiarize someone else's words or ideas, you may not use AI to compose writing—whether a full paper, a paragraph, or an original sentence—and submit it under your own name, unless you receive the prior permission of your instructor. If you have the permission of your instructor to use GenAI for such purposes, anything composed by GenAI must be properly cited (see the GenAI section of our Citation Guide for guidance). If you are tempted to use a GenAI tool to write for you because you don't think you are a good writer, schedule an appointment with a writing tutor instead! If you are tempted to use a GenAI tool to write for you to meet an assignment deadline, talk to your instructor instead! They will prefer receiving a late assignment that you actually wrote as opposed to an on-time submission written by ChatGPT.

AI, as of now, is also an imperfect research tool. Apps like ChatGPT only have access to publicly-available content, and therefore not to research that is only available behind password-protected eJournal databases. Most GenAI tools do not show their sources and cannot critically evaluate the quality of sources or authors. Therefore, GenAI is not a substitute for real critical research. If you need help with your research, you are encouraged to instead email a librarian for help!

Your audience—your professors and the outside academic world—expects that you will cite outside works according to Chicago Style or another citation style.  Citations are part of the ethics of scholarship.  It is unethical to take someone else’s idea and claim it as your own. Doing so, even unintentionally, is considered plagiarism, which can result in disciplinary action or even expulsion.

Citations are also justice work.  In citing a resource, you are properly attributing an idea to its creator; not citing someone else’s intellectual property is therefore an act of cultural appropriation.  Given that the ideas and contributions of historically-marginalized peoples have often been ignored, forgotten, and whitewashed, citations allow us the opportunity and ability to recognize the impact of black, brown, women, queer, and other long silenced voices.*

Finally, citations will show your professor that you have indeed been doing your work.  In citing your course readings, your instructor will see that you have been reading your assigned readings; in citing outside materials, your instructor will see that you have research skills.

*Zaynab Shahar, “Citations as Justice Work,” YouTube video, 11:15, July 17, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGmJNQXlHVc.