Citations

Make sure you check with your classroom teacher to find out what citation style you should be using. The main styles are:

• MLA for English Language Arts
• Chicago for History
• APA for Science

A great resource for citations is the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), which contains tips on formatting research papers and compiling citations for all three styles.

If you are copying or adapting someone else's work, make sure that you are using citations. You MUST use citations in order to avoid plagiarizing. The Oxford High School Handbook says in regards to plagiarism, "You commit plagiarism whenever you present words or ideas taken from another person as if they were your own. The easiest way to avoid plagiarism is always to use quotation marks when you quote directly from a source and always to acknowledge a source when you borrow or even allude to someone else's ideas."

Tips on Avoiding Plagiarism

• Use your own words and ideas
• Give credit where credit is due
• Simply tweaking or making minor changes to another's work is still plagiarism
• Beware of the "common knowledge" rule- you don't need to cite something if it is common knowledge. However, make sure that what you are writing is common enough that you don't need to cite it
• Try paraphrasing a passage instead of copying it directly. However, you still need to cite a passage that you paraphrase.