Skip to Main Content

BIO 141 & 142: Human Anatomy and Physiology I & II, NAS 150: Human Biology (NOVA Online)

This Guide is for students working on the Medical Experience/Medical Problem assignments in NOVA Online Biology and Anatomy & Physiology courses. Questions? Contact the Library Web Team at libraryweb@nvcc.edu.

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is copying an author's work and passing it off as your own. Use the resources on this page to help you in avoiding plagiarism.

  • Did you know that it is plagiarism if you paraphrase (i.e. put in your own words) an author's work without providing a citation?  
  • Even if you cite your source, if paraphrasing is not done correctly, you could still be plagiarizing! See below for tips on proper paraphrasing.

Important Tips on Using Sources

  • College-level writing is about processing information and creating your own new ideas, so you should only use direct quotes (i.e., an author's exact words) when it is absolutely necessary (e.g., when an author uses unique terminology).  Other times you should summarize or paraphrase. 
  • If you do quote directly, quote only partial sentences, not full sentences or paragraphs, unless you are providing a critical analysis of a text (e.g., a story or poem).
  • Be sure that all direct quotes are enclosed with quotation marks (".").

Plagiarism Resources

The following websites may help you better understand and avoid plagiarism.  Remember that there are serious consequences for plagiarizing.