Communication Studies 001 Pippins: Citing Resources

When you write a research paper, you use information and facts from a variety of resources to support your own ideas or to help you develop new ones. Books, articles, videos, interviews, and Web sites are some examples of sources you might use.  Citing these sources of information in your work is essential because:

• It gives credit to the author of the original work who provided you with the information or idea
• It allows your audience to identify and find the source material in order to learn more about your topic
• It gives your paper more credibility because it shows you're supporting your arguments with high-quality sources

You can also find websites which will create a citation after you plug in the necessary information (author, title, web address or publisher, etc). Some versions of Microsoft Word also include a citation generator.

NCSU Library (my favorite!)

Son of Citation Machine

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is using another person's words or ideas without giving credit to the other person.

COMMON TYPES OF PLAGIARISM

Paraphrasing without giving credits to the original source

Quoting less than what has been copied

Creating a paper by cutting and pasting phrases, sentences, or paragraphs from other publications

Working on an individual assignment with a partner and turning in identical answers

You Quote It, You Cite It! is Las Positas Library's adaptation of the Acadia University Library's tutorial on avoiding plagiarism.  Click here to take the tutorial.