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MGTA38: Management Communications

Fall 2024

Writing & Citations

As an academic writer you are required to document the sources of all information you use in your papers, presentations, and projects. Proper citation is used to:

  • give appropriate credit to the author and publisher; 
  • allow your readers to access the sources you used; 
  • avoid plagiarizing someone else's ideas.

By using proper citation, you openly acknowledge where your ideas come from. 

Learn APA Citation Online

Resources for Academic Writing

How Not to Plagiarize

From the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters: It shall be an offence for a student knowingly: (d) to represent as one's own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work, i.e.

Paraphrase and Summary

To paraphrase means to restate someone else's ideas in your own language at roughly the same level of detail. To summarize means to reduce the most essential points of someone else's work into a shorter form. Along with quotation, paraphrase and summary provide the main tools for integrating your sources into your papers.

Using Quotations

The focus of your essay should be on your understanding of the topic. If you include too much quotation in your essay, you will crowd out your own ideas. Consider quoting a passage from one of your sources if any of the following conditions holds: The language of the passage is particularly elegant or powerful or memorable.

Getting Writing Support

Writing Support | The Writing Centre

The UTSC Writing Centre works with students at all stages of assignment development: from brainstorming and developing an outline to constructing introductions, body paragraphs and conclusions, to citation, referencing, editing and proofreading. We offer individual consultations as well as writing groups, workshops and clinics.

UTSC Writing Support
AC 210 (across from Library)
Get Writing Support

Special Considerations when using AI

Using Artificial Intelligence for Academic Research

When doing any kind of research using A.I., here are some points to keep in mind.

Copyright considerations

Legal landscape

  • Still evolving
  • Always read the terms when signing up for accounts, even free accounts

Academic perspective

  • Idea-generation vs. generation of the final written product - see syllabus for what is permitted in your course
  • Most tools do not necessarily provide the right answer; rather they try to predict the statistically most likely answer
  • Everything must be verified through research using the skills provided in this guide and in class
  • Tools may produce some real citations, but beware of misinformation and fake (hallucinated) citations
  • More to generate content, not searching in the context of academic research

Example

Please give me academic citations on the state of health technologies in Mozambique. Can you only provide references from top-tier journals, and from a diverse and inclusive pool of authors taking into account equity factors such as gender and race?

I apologize, but I don't have access to real-time academic databases to provide you with the most up-to-date academic citations from top-tier journals on the state of health technologies in Mozambique. Additionally, as of my last knowledge update in September 2021, I can't provide up-to-date citations from diverse authors on specific topics. 

The AI Tool's Recommendations for this prompt included:

  • searching academic databases
  • filtering by date to get the latest information
  • cross-referencing with additional sources

It closed off the response with the following note:

Please keep in mind that the availability of academic sources on this topic may vary, and the most recent information may not be readily available in academic publications. You may also want to consult Mozambican government reports and local healthcare organizations for insights into the state of health technologies in Mozambique.