Citing Sources

A guide on how and when to cite your sources.

What Is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the presentation of another’s words or ideas as if they were your own without giving credit to the other person, including but not limited to:

  • Purchasing a paper on-line and submitting it as your own
  • Copying your classmate’s paper (or parts of it) and submitting it as your own
  • Paraphrasing ideas, data or writing from someone else’s work without properly acknowledging the original source
  • Unauthorized transfer and use of another person’s computer file as your own

Source: UCLA Office of the Dean of Students’ Student Guide to Academic Integrity.

Academic Dishonesty

You are expected to demonstrate integrity in all of your academic endeavors and plagiarism is a violation of that integrity. There are different forms of academic dishonesty:

  • Cheating: “I copied off of someone else’s exam.”
  • Fabrication: “I made up the results for that lab exercise.”
  • Plagiarism: “I didn’t write that part of my paper—I just cut and pasted the text directly from the Web.”
  • Multiple Submissions: “I submitted the same paper for two of my classes.”
  • Facilitating Academic Dishonesty: “I let my roommate copy my homework—it’s no big deal.”

Source: Dougherty, K., Lee, S. (2012). Avoiding plagiarism: A workshop on citation [PowerPoint slides].