Plagiarism & Citing

Because Purdue's Online Writing Lab has such comprehensive information and resources on all things related to the writing process, this will be our source and authority on understanding and preventing plagiarism and ensuring that we properly cite any sources used in research, idea-generation, and writing.

What is Plagiarism?

When is something considered plagiarism? The main ones are as follows:

Failing to cite another’s ideas or creations, whether quoted directly (copy+paste), paraphrased (copied but revised to include a lot of your own words), summarized, or inserted in the case of images or audio files) when used in your own projects
Creating false sources to make it look like you used the sources when you actually didn't)
Submitting another person’s work and passing it off as your own, either through an exact copy or making minor changes
Not citing properly (this will be dealt with by correcting and re-educating, as you are still learning)

When Do I Need to Cite a Source?

Whenever you use a primary or secondary source for criticism, or review (e.g., essays and presentations in English class), you need to credit the creator of the work and give your audience a way to find the original source. Use includes directly quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, or incorporating (in the case of images, sound bites, or videos) the source into your own work.

If you are using a source for research, study, education, or parody, you do not need to cite your source. Parody is when you imitate the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

Identifying plagiarism and the need for citations

Why Do I Need to Cite?

To show respect for the work of others
To help a reader to distinguish our work from the work of others who have contributed to our work
To give the reader the opportunity to check the validity of our use of other people’s work
To give the reader the opportunity to follow up our references, out of interest
To show and receive proper credit for our research process
To demonstrate that we are able to use reliable sources and critically assess them to support our work
To establish the credibility and authority of our knowledge and ideas
To demonstrate that we are able to draw our own conclusions
To share the blame (if we get it wrong).

How to Avoid Plagiarism by Preparing to Cite Properly

Best practices for research, note-taking, and drafting to avoid plagiarizing

When gathering "evidence" from the primary text for literary essays, always include the parenthetical in-text citation information next to the quote, paraphrase, or summary to keep track of which scene, page, or line it came from.
When you read outside the primary text, you need to get into a habit of tracking your reading history so that you don't accidentally mistake other people's thoughts for your own.

How Do I Cite a Source?

There are 3 common styles for citing sources - MLA, APA, and Chicago Manual of Style. In English 10-1, you will learn and be expected to use MLA Style, as it is best suited for literary texts and use in literary analysis. MLA requires both a parenthetical in-text citation AND a full entry on a Works Cited page (also known as a bibliography).

In-text Citations

Your social studies class likely had you use footnotes to cite your sources. MLA Style uses in-text citations rather than footnote citations. The in-text citation is a brief reference within your text that indicates the source you consulted. Most often, the reference is given in parentheses () at the end of a sentence.

See the MLA Citation Quick Guide. Note that Wikipedia is not included because it is not an academic resource. For more on this see Using Secondary Sources Responsibly.
More help:

Works Cited Page

For every source you cite in text, you need a corresponding entry in a separate Works Cited page. Your Works Cited page should:

Be titled Works Cited (capitalized and centered)
Organize all entries alphabetically
Be single-spaced with extra spaces between entries
Indent the second or third lines of any entries that carry over past one line
Not use bullets

This is a MLA Sample Works Cited Page. Notice that it meets all of the formatting criteria above.

For properly documenting the entries themselves, see the MLA Citation Quick Guide. Note that Wikipedia is not included because it is not an academic resource. For more on this see Using Secondary Sources Responsibly.

For more information, see MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications).