CITATION, BIBLIOGRAPHICAL FORMATS,
AND PLAGIARISM
You are ethically and legally obligated to give authors credit for the words and ideas that your writing borrows from them. You give credit to authors by means of in-text citations for specifically borrowed words and ideas and by a bibliographical entry for the text from which the words and ideas came.
Put citations after the words or ideas borrowed. If the borrowing goes on for more than one paragraph, put a citation at the end of each paragraph.
Citations and bibliographies tell your reader that you have consulted authorities in coming up with your reasons, evidence, and overall argument. They lend credibility to your argument. They also clearly distinguish the ideas of those you have consulted from your own ideas.
I In-text Citation, Bibliographical Formats, and Style Wizards
MLA and APA bibliographical formats for on-line materials:
http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/ressubj/subject/intrnt/citeweb.htm
II Basic Guidelines for citing sources (articles, books, etc.):
A. When should I put an in-text citation in my paper?
1. When you quote several words within the same sentence of an author.
I suggest that one use an in-text citation whenever one quotes two or
more words found within the same sentence. Others have different guidelines.
2. When you use an author's idea within your argument.
B. Can I use the author's name within my text, rather than putting it in
parentheses? Yes
Here are two possibilities:
a. According to Thorsten Veblen, the accumulation of commodities represents
"one's pecuniary strength": MLA use the page (87); APA use the
date of the publication (1970).
b. The accumulation of commodities represents "one's pecuniary strength" MLA:
(Veblen 87). APA (Veblen 1970).
C. Must every in-text citation refer to an item in the bibliography?
Yes.
III Plagiarism
If you use an author's words or ideas without crediting him or her with an in-text citation and a bibliographical entry, then you are committing the legal crime of plagiarism, which can have legal consequences and is punished in the university by expulsion.
The student code of conduct defines plagiarism as follows: "Plagiarism is the unacknowledged appropriation of another's work, words, or ideas in any themes, outlines, papers, reports, or computer programs. Students must ascertain from the instructor in each course the appropriate means of documentation. Submitting the same paper for more than one course is considered a breach of academic integrity unless prior approval is given by the instructors."
Plagiarism also involves deceitfully attributing material from one source to another source.