Plagiarism is the act of using someone else’s ideas, concepts, words, images, music, etc. as if they were your own, without giving proper credit; it is intellectual theft. When you approach writing your paper with the notion that you want to avoid plagiarism, you are not only doing the right thing, but you are also engaged in the intellectual work that is required when you describe, analyze, synthesize, and draw new conclusions about your topic. When you work to avoid plagiarism you work to set your own ideas upon, next to, or in opposition to, those scholars whose work came before yours.
Avoid plagiarism by citing:
You do not have to cite commonly accepted facts. One rule of thumb for commonly accepted facts are those that can be found in five reference sources. It is often difficult to know what commonly accepted facts are, so when in doubt, it is best to provide a citation for them.
View a handout (pdf) with more information on avoiding plagiarism.
Style guides provide advice and guidelines on
The style guides listed below provide very helpful information on all aspects of writing a paper. In addition, here are some good Internet sites to help you with writing papers:
Bibliographic citations and footnotes credit the author and enable the reader to locate source material. They also help separate your own ideas and synthesis from your source material.
As you compile and cite references, be sure to observe a consistent style -- thtat is, don't mix APA style and Chicago style references. Complete citations to online or electronic resources are also required in the same manner as for printed sources. Anytime you use material that is not your own, it must be cited regardless of the format.
The major style guides are:
Primarily used by Psychologists and Social Scientists
American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2010. Call number: Reference BF76.7 P83 2010
See also these pages from the APA:
Primarily used by historians, anthropologists and some other humanities disciplines, the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style is available online (Chicago Manual of Style Online) and in the Seymour Library Reference Room (Z253 U69 2003).
Primarily used by Language and Literature scholars, and other Humanities disciplines
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003. Call Number: Reference LB2369 .G53 2003
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue has an explanation of the MLA style with examples and links to other sites.
Your paper may need both a works cited list (also known as a reference list) and a bibliography.
♦ The works cited list should contain each reference that you used in support of your argument in your paper. These are the references you refer to (cite) in the body of your paper.
♦ A bibliography is a list of works you consulted for background, but did not cite in your paper. A bibliography can also be a list of suggested sources for further reading.