We know, we know. Writing a paper can be daunting and tedious. However, we want to help you succeed, persevere, and get your paper writing skills up to par. When it comes to writing a paper, there are certain dos and don’ts that must be addressed.

DON’T #1 Plagiarize

Plagiarism is literally theft. When one plagiarizes, they are stealing thoughts and ideas, and taking credit for work that is not one’s own.  To further explain plagiarism, I will borrow (with permission, of course) a list of some offences from a notification dated Jan 27, 2009 we were required to sign:

1. Copying and pasting text from another person’s work.
2. Not quoting a direct quote.
3. Re-arranging a thought from someone else’s work and then claiming it as your own.
4. Not citing someone’s work that gave you an idea, thought, concept.
5. Do NOT cite a reference unless you actually use it in the text of your paper.  In other words, citing references without having read the article.

To further illustrate the seriousness of the matter, I will use a direct quote from our PT department’s handbook:

“Cheating or plagiarism warrants a penalty of no less than a written warning placed in the student’s file on the first offense. The student automatically receives a zero on the work involved. Beyond the first offense, cheating or plagiarism warrants dismissal from the program.” (TSU Dept. of PT Handbook, p.14)

Dismissal from the program? Isn’t that a little extreme, you ask? Well, it happened to somebody in the class above us. He’s long gone. So, yes this is serious. It is possible to imagine that many other schools employ a similar mindset.

The take home message here is: if you don’t want to find yourself up to your eyeballs in debt, kicked out of your program for not quoting someone’s work, don’t plagiarize. Just say no, kids.

DO #1 Cite properly

When a professor gives an assignment, it usually comes with a preferred method of citation. If not, pick one you like and stick with it. There are two prevalent citation styles used in the medical field: APA and AMA.

There is a great resource out there for everything you need to know citation wise provided by one Robert Delany at Long Island University. We have provided these links for you so that you don’t have to suffer through us trying to explain it to you:

APA Citation Style – Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition (first printing), 2010

AMA Citation Style – American Medical Association Manual of Style, 10th edition

We have used these links and found them to be very reliable and helpful.

Also - WHEN IN DOUBT, CITE! It is better to be safe than sorry. Keep in mind that your faculty advisor/professor would probably be more than willing to help you with this process and show you how to properly provide citations in your work.
Also again- if you are having trouble finding a good journal article, read our post about how to find an article here.

DO #2 Use the spell check feature of your word processor.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the spell check feature is there for a reason…to check your spelling. It should also find simple grammatical errors that you may have made, making your paper a more legit piece of work.

DO #3 Proofread your work

If you don’t proofread your paper it might look like this. If you don’t proofread your paper it might look like this. (I hope you caught that). Remember, a machine runs your spell check feature. It does not have the human element. It would recognize the two sentences above as complete sentences with proper spelling, but chances are it won’t tell you that you have duplicate sentences. You may also want to consider reading aloud what you have written. From experience, this has helped reveal any phrases that just don’t fit right disrupting the perfect flow of the document.

DO # 4 Have someone else proofread your work

Preferably, this someone isn’t a pansy who is afraid to give you feedback, positive or negative. If they give you negative feedback, don’t grab your Kleenex and start crying. Take into consideration the revisions they’ve suggested you make. It will make your paper better.

DO #5 Verify the Professors requirements

For example, we have a professor (you know who you are!) who always listed that our paper had to contain/be:

1. No more than __X__Pages in length.
2. Size 12 text with Times New Roman font
3. 1 inch margins
4. Double Spaced

If we don’t follow these simple instructions, we are penalized, and it sucks!

So, there you have it. We are confident that if you follow these simple steps, you will be able to write a paper that will blow your professors mind and skyrocket you to the top of the class. Also, if you found any errors in the writing above, remember-we are only human…most of the time!