PMCb1002 - Academic Writing
Autumn 2023, Class 3 of 6
References, Zotero, plagiarism, ChatGPT

ChatGPT

I do for synonyms, occasional rewording, statistical codes, article titles, when asking for
comparisons or explanations, summaries of theories, ideologies, hypotheses, and I use it at work.

Plagiarism
-Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone’s work
- Using the words and ideas of others without referencing your sources would be construed as
plagiarism
-Plagiarism is highly punishable by all institutions, including Masaryk University
-To avoid plagiarism, it is important to use references

Referencing
-Referencing signals that sources have played a role in your research & giving credit
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-Necessary to avoid plagiarism
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-Helps your readers find the sources you’ve used & helps them evaluate your interpretation

Referencing
-Shows that you have read around the subject
-Strengthens arguments by providing supporting evidence
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-Common knowledge doesn’t need to be referenced:
-Facts, dates, events, information that is expected to be known by your field
-Facts, information available in numerous places
-Example: London is England’s capital

How to reference
-Different ways to go about it, example:
-Harrison (2020, p.20) states that…
-In a recent study (Harrison, 2020),
-Harrison (2020) has shown that British children who spent time in the care of the state have a
lower life expectancy than the general population (p. 20)
-A study has shown that British children who spent time in the care of the state have a lower life
expectancy than the general population (Harrison, 2020, p. 20)
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How to reference
-Direct quotes need quotation marks. In English, we use “these.”
-The punctuation goes inside the quotation marks
-But if it is a quote:
- Robinson et al. claim ”dogs are more popular than cats in North America” (2020, p. 13).
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Paraphrasing
-Paraphrasing is expressing the meaning of someone else’s work using different words
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-It is your own explanation and interpretation of someone’s ideas
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- These ideas still need to be accredited so citing it still necessary

Citation Styles
-Unique styles that require different formatting and information in both the in-text citations and
the bibliography
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-Word capitalization, name of bibliography, author names in bibliography, page numbers in in-text
citations, etc
-Always: mandatory bibliography at the end of your work
-Everything cited in-text must be in bibliography and vice-versa
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Citation Styles
-APA, or American Psychological Association, used in psychology, anthropology, sociology (author,
year, p. page)
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-MLA, or Modern Language Association, used in Literature, Cultural Studies, English Studies
-(author page)
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- Chicago, used for business, history, and fine arts
-footnotes or in-text citations

How to use Zotero
-Helps you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources
-Must download browser extension to save papers, articles, books, from online
-Create an account not to lose your work!
-Creates your in-text citations and bibliographies for you
-You can change citation styles at any time

Overview – academic paper structure
- Title page
- Abstract and keywords
-Introduction
-Literature review/theoretical background
- Conceptual background
- Methods/research design
-Analysis
-Findings*
- Discussion*
- Conclusion