During your academic life at MIT, you will be asked to do assignments that require research and experimentation. You will also be asked to solve science and math problems that require original thinking. In some classes, you will be required to write papers for which you will need to do research in books, journals, electronic media, and other sources.

One of the challenges of good scholarship is to take what has already been done, said, or argued, and incorporate it into your work in an original way. To some students, this task may seem unnecessarily redundant: a student writing a paper on the benefits of stem cell research may ask, “If the positive aspects of this research have already been argued, why do I need to do it again?” The answer is that

• your way of presenting the information and arguing it will be different from that of others and is therefore valuable; and
• as more recent information on your subject becomes available, you have the opportunity to bring this information into your report or argument, adding new dimensions to the discussion.

Adapted from:
Avoiding plagiarism. Purdue University OWL Online Writing Lab. Retrieved May 31, 2005 from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html

Sometimes the goals of academic writing may seem contradictory.

Academic writing is a challenge. It demands that you build on work done by others but create something original from it. The foundation of good academic work – in research and in writing — is honesty. By acknowledging where you have used the ideas, work, or words of others, you maintain your academic integrity and uphold the standards of the Institute and of the discipline in which you work.