Resources for faculty, staff, and students
Below you will find videos on different aspects of the research and writing processes created by our team. These can be embedded on Canvas, shown in classes, workshops, and orientations, or shared on social media. Be sure to check out the official YouTube channel of the Avila Center for Student Excellence for more content on study skills and navigating university life! If you have ideas for writing tutorials we should make, write to Ashley.Squires@avila.edu.
APA Citation
Is your professor requiring you to use APA format for all of your sources? Overwhelmed? Confused? In 30 minutes, these two videos will give you all the basic tools you need to conquer this assignment requirement. For further help, you can download our Quick Reference pdf here.
Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a topic with really high stakes for faculty and students alike. We have all heard that we are supposed to avoid appropriating the words and ideas of other people and presenting them as our own and may even know of cases where students and even professional writers have been accused of or punished for this violation of academic ethics. But for many, the reasons why plagiarism is bad and what it actually looks like in practice is a little less clear. In this series of videos, we discuss major types of plagiarism, why they are a problem, and how students can avoid them. We acknowledge that not all people who plagiarize are necessarily bad or dishonest people. Many don’t even realize that they are doing it. With this series, we hope to increase awareness and understanding among students and faculty and promote best practices for preventing and avoiding plagiarism in course papers.
MLA Citation
MLA style is one of the first citation systems taught to students and probably the most common in high school and college. That is because it is generally the easiest to get the hang of and requires gathering less information for in-text citations than APA or Chicago. This video series gives an overview of how to format both in-text and Works Cited entries using MLA style for those who have never used it before. For additional help, you can find our quick reference handout here and our formatting template here.