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Make sure you understand how to cite your sources. The Online Writing Center at Purdue University (Purdue OWL) is an excellent online resource to help you cite your resources properly. It also offers tips on how to construct a quality term paper. The Excelsior Online Writing Lab is another excellent resource.
A citation....
Online documents make it very easy to cut and paste information without thinking and without giving proper credit. Make sure you understand how to cite your sources.
"The purpose of a research paper is to synthesize previous research and scholarship with your ideas on the subject. Therefore, you should feel free to use other persons' words, facts, and thoughts in your research paper, but the material you borrow must not be presented as if it were your own creation."
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th Edition. New York: MLA. 55. Print.
Why do you need to cite the sources you use for your papers?*
1. Your professors expect you to read about the research of others, and to bring together their ideas in such a way that makes sense to you and will make sense to your readers. Therefore, it's essential for you to cite your sources in any research paper you write. The academic reasons for doing so are to give credit to those who have done the original research and written the article or book, and to allow readers (your professors) to look at them if needed to find out if you have properly understood what the author was trying to say.
2. On a practical level, citing your sources is a way to show that you've done the assignment. If your paper contains no citations, the implication is that you have done a piece of original research, but that probably was not the assignment. Citations (along with the bibliography) show that you have consulted a variety of resources as the assignment required. They're also an acknowledgement of your indebtedness to those authors.
3. So don't feel you need to hide the fact that you're drawing from one of your sources. That's what it's all about.
*Adapted from: Taylor, Bill. "A letter to my students." Academic Integrity Seminar. 29 Feb. 2008 <integrityseminar.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Taylor-Letter-to-My-Students.pdf >
There are quite a few different ways to cite resources in your paper. The citation style sometimes depends on the academic discipline involved. For example:
You will need to consult with your professor to determine what is required in your specific course.
Do not procrastinate. When you wait until the last minute to begin working on an assignment, you will feel rushed. Either you will fail to document the use of your sources accurately or you might make a poor choice and choose to simply "copy and paste" together your paper. Not a good idea. To avoid this potential hazard, start early. You will thank yourself later.
Get comfortable with your required/ often used citation style. The more you use your chosen citation style (MLA, APA, Chicago), the more comfortable you become with appropriately using it and documenting your sources accurately. Consult the style guides for the format, such as the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, the MLA Handbook, etc.
Keep track of your source materials. The best way to do this is have an actual copy of your source. Print out, copy the source, or save the electronic copy. It is much easier to work with paper material, than try to remember where you found a source.
Take good notes. Take complete notes, and include author's names and page numbers for easy reference later. Within your source material, highlight key passages and annotate the text in the margins. Just be sure you are doing this note taking in a copy of the source material--not highlighting in a library book.
Maintain a working bibliography. Essentially, keep a list of any sources that you consult or think you might include in your assignment. Make sure that in this working bibliography you note the important citation information for your source material (ex. title, author, publication information, URL, etc.) Use the citation tools available in databases, word processing software, and online.
Ask your librarian or professor. If you are unsure about how to cite source material or whether or not something should be cited, check with your instructor or librarian; they are the professionals.
Type 1: Copy and Paste Plagiarism or Direct Plagiarism
When you copy a sentence, phrase, or paragraph word for word, but do not quote your source.
Type 2: Word Switch Plagiarism
When you rephrase a person's work and insert it into your own work without acknowledging its original source. If you take a sentence from a source and change a few works without acknowledging your source, it is still plagiarism.
This is not paraphrasing. For information on how to correctly paraphrase, see When To Cite.
Type 3: Mosaic or Blending Plagiarism
When you: mix words or ideas from an unacknowledged source in with your own words or ideas; mix together uncited words and ideas from several sources into a single work; or mix together properly cited uses of a source with uncited uses.
Type 4: Insufficient Acknowledgement
When you correctly cite your source once, but continue to use the author's work with out giving additional proper citation.
Type 5: Self-Plagiarism
When you use a paper or assignment completed for one class to satisfy the assignment for a different class. Even if you modify a previous paper or assignment, you must get permission from your professor/ instructor and correctly cite your previous paper.