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Student resources

We are here to help you succeed honestly. We've compiled some useful tools to help you get it right including writing guides, citing tutorials and tips on effective and ethical paraphrasing, as well as a list of services available at мÓÆÂÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ö±²¥:

Recording and saving your work

To maintain the integrity of every degree that is conferred, мÓÆÂÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ö±²¥ will only give credit to students who complete their own work. It is every student’s responsibility to maintain their own records of work they have completed. If there is evidence that your work was not completed independently by you or that you had another person complete work for you, it will be very helpful for you to be able to produce:

  • Notes
  • Drafts
  • Electronic files
  • Any other evidence that will demonstrate that you completed the work yourself.Ìý

If you do not have any such evidence to present, the faculty academic integrity officer or Senate Discipline Committee may consider this as a factor in determining whether you have committed an academic offence.

Writing

Online tools and resources

If you need help with your writing, there are many free online tools and apps:

  • Ìý Helps improve the clarity of your writing while also checking grammar and spelling.
  • Ìý The free version of Grammarly proofreads your documents to improve grammar and spelling. The paid version of the app can also help you create and format citations.
  • Ìý Copy and paste your writing into this simple free tool to check your spelling and grammar.

мÓÆÂÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ö±²¥ Writing Centre

Located in the Killam Library on the Studley Campus in Halifax, the Writing Centre offers writing support for students in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs in all fields of study. They meet with students individually — either in-person or online — to discuss written work, from first-year assignments to final reports and dissertations. The Writing Centre also has a series of online academic integrity modules designed to help you understand plagiarism and how to avoid it.

Visit the Writing Centre website to learn more

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is restating someone else's ideas in your own words. It allows you to maintain the flow of your writing by reducing the number of direct quotations.Ìý
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All text taken from another source must either be in quotation marks or paraphrased and acknowledged in your bibliography.

Paraphrasing resources

The following resources offer some great tips for paraphrasing ethically:

  • The мÓÆÂÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ö±²¥ Writing Centre can help you with paraphrasing and citing material correctly.

  • The Writing Center at Colorado State University provides tips on when to use quotations and when not to. Get tips on .

  • More examples of acceptable and unacceptable paraphrasing from Purdue University’s Writing Tutorial Service. Learn more about plagiarism: 

  • It's harder than it sounds, which is why practice makes perfect. Try these  exercises from Purdue University Online Writing Lab.

Citing

Citations acknowledge the sources used in your work and give information about the source that will allow your reader to find it again. The information provided in the citation normally includes:

  • ÌýAuthor name
  • ÌýTitle
  • ÌýName of publication
  • ÌýDate of publication
  • ÌýPage numbers (if applicable)

Citation styles

There are many different ways to cite materials—MLA, APA, Chicago, engineering style, medical style, and more. The type of citation you use will depend on your area of study. Check with your professor to learn which citation style you should use.

Zotero online citation tool

is a free citation manager that allows you to manage citations, webpages, images, and full-text articles. Zotero is free for мÓÆÂÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ö±²¥ students through Dal Libraries.

Citation practices across cultures

Acknowledging sources is a practice shared across cultures. The University of Auckland created videos of students from diverse cultural backgrounds, explaining why people around the world agree that it's important to reference.

Services and general resources

 offer online guides and tutorials on how to research effectively and cite appropriately. They also offer research consultations at the Reference Desks in each library.

 is run by the Student Union and works to ensure that students are treated fairly by the university. They assist students with academic appeals and student discipline procedures.

Ouriginal (formerly Urkund) is a tool inside Brightspace which compares submitted assignments against a set of previously written papers to identify areas of overlap between the submission and existing works.

The Student Accessibility Centre helps students with disabilities remove barriers to learning and access accommodations.

Student Health & Wellness provides physical and mental health services to help students make the most of their education.