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SPCH 1311 / SPCH 1315 / SPCH 1321 SO

This guide has been designed to assist you in the research for informative, argumentative, business, and persuasive speeches.

Plagiarism Tutorials

Refer to the TCC Student Handbook for information regarding academic integrity and prohibited behaviors, including a definition and examples of plagiarism (Student Code of Conduct, Article III, Item 2). 

The TCC Libraries offer two tutorials about plagiarism and how to avoid it. The tutorials cover the same content but use different citation styles. 

Don't Do It!

At Tarrant County College, scholastic dishonesty is unacceptable and is not tolerated. Any person who is a party to scholastic dishonesty as defined below will be disciplined as prescribed in this document.

SCHOLASTIC DISHONESTY is defined as misconduct including, but not limited to, plagiarism, cheating, and collusion.

PLAGIARISM is defined as presenting as one’s own the ideas or writings of another without acknowledging or documenting the source(s).

Students are guilty of plagiarism when they do any of the following in an essay or presentation:

  • Copy a word or words directly from a book, periodical, or electronic source without using quotation marks and references to sources;
  • Summarize or paraphrase the ideas or opinions of an author or use the data collected by an author without citing the author as the source;
  • Submit papers or projects which do not reflect their own knowledge, voice, and style, usually as a result of having had another person (1) write, (2) rephrase, (3) rewrite, or (4) complete their ideas;
  • Submit a paper or project which was written or prepared by another person for another class or another instructor implying that the work is their original composition or project;
  • Submit a paper or project which was previously submitted to fulfill requirements for another course, unless (1) the professor permits students to draw from earlier papers/projects or (2) the professors of concurrent courses (i.e. Common Ground courses) permit students to submit a paper/project to fulfill requirements in both courses;
  • Download a paper or portions of text from an electronic source and (1) paste it into a paper, (2) retype the paper or portions of the paper and submit it as their own composition, (3) retype phrases or sentences with a few changes, and submit the paper as their own composition, or (4) summarize or paraphrase the ideas from one or more sentences, without citing the source.
  • Submit as their own work a paper (or parts of a paper) purchased from a company or electronic source that offers catalogs of essays on different topics and/or for different courses.

TCC Student Handbook, pg. 64-65