Academic Integrity
Maintaining academic integrity in your writing is about more than mindlessly following citation rules to escape the perils of plagiarism–it's about how you as a writer interact with the work of other scholars. You maintain your integrity as a scholar–writer when you treat the writings of the people you encounter during your research with the respect they deserve by crediting them for the knowledge they have created. Integrity is also preserved when you leave a trail of your research that others can follow.
Respect and sharing knowledge–the care you take to properly attribute credit and the authentic way you interact with material from other authors–show others the kind of writer/researcher/thinker you are.
For more in–depth information about maintaining integrity in your writing, visit the "Academic Honesty" module, and the "APA: Finding Answers," or "APA Style and Formatting" modules.
Of course, academic integrity applies to more than what you write. To find out more about maintaining your academic integrity as a learner, read Capella University's official policy. (iGuide login required)
In addition to the resources available in the Online Writing Center, Capella offers a tool called the SafeAssign Source Matching Tool that you can access from your courseroom home page.
What is the SafeAssign Source Matching Tool?
SafeAssign compares the text in your document to that found in a series of industry-leading databases, including the Internet, ProQuest ABI/Inform database, an institutional database of papers submitted to Capella, as well as a Global Reference database that contains papers volunteered by students from many institutions.
The SafeAssign Source Matching tool provides a report identifying matching text that it finds, as well as the source it has located. This can assist in verifying that you have cited any source material that you have used. A key thing to note is that the SafeAssign Source Matching tool is not a plagiarism detection tool. It can only verify whether your text matches other sources. If you have cited information correctly, it may be perfectly appropriate to have the text match. You, as the writer, have to interpret the report to determine whether your work would be seen as plagiarism because the matching sources are not cited appropriately. You can then revise your writing to include missing attributions, improve your paraphrasing of source materials, and make other changes to ensure that the paper you submit for grading is your own work.
For more information and practice tutorials on SafeAssign, go to the "Thinking, Reading, and Writing" site on iGuide (iGuide login required).
apa style & formatting
Review highlights to help you quickly understand the fundamentals you need to write a course paper that meets the APA guidelines.
View Media.
academic honesty
Learn how to write responsibly and give proper credit to your sources.
View Media.
apa: finding answers
Review this module before, during, and after colloquia to build on your APA Editorial Style knowledge.
