Learn to Research in 5 Easy Steps

Cite Your Sources Overview

In this module you will learn about

  1. Why you should cite your sources
  2. Citing, referencing, quoting and paraphrasing
  3. Avoiding plagiarism
  4. Recognizing plagiarism

After working through the interactive tutorial, watching the video, reading the text, and working through the How to Recognize Plagiarism exercise, you are ready to research!

1. Why Cite Sources?

Citing sources is giving credit to the original author and publisher of the information you use in your research

Why cite sources?

Avoid Plagiarizing: You must cite any direct quotation, summary, or paraphrase of any idea or fact from your research. Citing sources is giving credit to the original author and publication where you found the information. Not citing sources is plagiarism and you may be subject to academic discipline.

Lend Authority to Your Paper: By referencing the work of scholars and other professionals, you demonstrate that your own research is based on solid, reliable information and that you are capable of critical thinking by being able to synthesize that research into your own.

Provide a Path: By citing sources, you provide the information readers of your paper need in order to locate the same sources that you did.

Acknowledge Other's Work: Part of your research is built upon the research of other people. It is respectful and fair to give them credit for their hard work (just as you would hope others would give you credit if they were quoting your own work!)

2. Avoid Plagiarism by Paraphrasing

Video produced by Emily Nimsakont.

3. Demystifying Citing and Referencing

Work through the Demystifying Citing and Referencing interactive tutorial to learn about quoting, paraphrasing, citing, and plagiarism.

4. How to Recognize Plagiarism

Test yourself using this How to Recognize Plagiarism exercise.

And Then There's Copyright

Copyright insures that the person who created something--whether a book or a piece of music--is reimbursed for his intellectual work. If there were no copyright protection, there would be no economic incentive to create these works.

A copyright is a set of legal rights that an author has over his work for a limited period of time. Copyright covers everything from using images or sound files from the Web to photocopying.

Most information is protected by copyright. The exception is work that is in the "public domain, " which can be reproduced or used by anyone. However, you still must credit the author. Some examples of public domain sources:

Public Domain Sources Examples
Publications of the U.S. Government   U.S. laws and other publications of the Federal government, the U.S. Constitution
Copyright has been waived by the author.   Software called freeware or web pages with a Creative Commons agreement.
Works on which the copyright has expired   Works by William Shakespeare

Definitions

Question mark

A citation reflects all of the information a person would need to locate a particular source. For example, basic citation information for a book consists of name(s) of author(s) or editor(s), title of the book, name of publisher, place of publication, and most recent copyright date.
 
A citation style (such as "APA" or "MLA") dictates the information necessary for a citation and how the information is ordered, as well as punctuation and other formatting.

A bibliography is an organized list of citations.

In an annotated bibliography, each citation is followed by a brief note—or annotation—that describes and/or evaluates the source and the information found in it.

A works cited (MLA style) or references (APA style) list presents citations for those sources referenced or cited in a particular paper, presentation, or other composition.
 
An in-text citation consists of just enough information to correspond to a source's full citation in a Works Cited or References list. In-text citations often require a page number (or numbers) showing exactly where relevant information was found in the original source.
 
An abstract is a summary of an article or other work and cannot be used as if it were the full text. You should not reference or cite an abstract in a paper or presentation, but instead find the full text.