Citing Sources

Citing sources:

• Shows the research you've done.
• Strengthens the ideas you present. 
• Adds your ideas to the "conversation" about your topic.
• Allows readers to follow up on your work through its original sources.

A short tutorial from the University of Maryland Writing Center.

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own. Plagiarism can take many forms, such as using someone else's term paper, copying passages from books or websites without citations, using someone else's words without credit or paraphrasing someone else's work without citing them. You can avoid plagiarism by being sure to:

• paraphrase. 
• use your own ideas.
• use the ideas of others only to support your own arguments.
• use quotation marks when directly stating another's words.
• write a complete citation for each source while you take notes.