THE LIBRARY MEDIA CENTER AND CITING SOURCES

THE LIBRARY MEDIA CENTER AND CITING SOURCES
UPDATED 03/23/07

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is cheating: it is the “wrongful act of taking the product of another person’s mind and presenting it as one’s own” (Alexander Lindey, Plagiarism and Originality qtd. in Gibaldi 30). According to Joseph Gibaldi of the Modern Language Association (MLA), “To use another person’s ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source is to plagiarize. Plagiarism, then, constitutes intellectual theft” (30). Certainly plagiarism is morally and ethically wrong: this form of cheating involves stealing, lying, and insulting others. First, taking ideas and words from another to use as your own without permission or acknowledgement is stealing. Second, offering another person’s ideas and words as your own in any assignment—a paper, test, examination, poster, or oral report--is lying. Third, disrespect for the intellectual integrity of the source, your fellow students, and your teachers is insulting (Babbie).

What constitutes plagiarism?

Buying or downloading a paper from a research service or term-paper mill and offering it as your own

Turning in another student’s work, with or without that student’s knowledge, as your own

Copying any portion of another’s work without proper acknowledgement

Copying material from a source, supplying proper documentation, but leaving out quotation marks or failing to indent properly

Paraphrasing ideas and language from a source without proper documentation

What are the consequences for plagiarism?
Plagiarism can have serious consequences: you may earn a grade of zero for the paper, you may earn a double zero, you may fail the course, or you may even face expulsion from the school. Some colleges with honor codes expel students for plagiarism.

How does a student avoid plagiarism?

Always give credit where credit is due. In other words, learn to acknowledge your sources.
You must learn to cite your sources within your text and in a bibliography or list of works cited at the end of the paper. Directions for acknowledging or Citing Sources follow on the next two pages.
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Works Cited

Babbie, Earl. “Plagiarism.” Teaching Resources Depository: Other Teaching Tools. Social Sciences Research and
        Instructional Council. 26 Oct. 1998. 18 April 2002
        <http://www.csubak.edu/ssric/Modules/Other/plagiarism.htm>.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: The Modern Language Association of
        America, 1999.
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Prepared by the Collier County Public Schools Plagiarism Committee—April, 2002

What does “citing a source” mean?

Giving credit to someone or something when what you use is not your own original work

When should you cite a source?

When you use another person's idea, opinion, or theory

When you use any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings, pictures, sounds, etc. or any other piece of information which you found from any source

When you use quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words

When you paraphrase (put in your own words) another person's spoken or written words (Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University)

What needs to be included when you cite a source?

Who wrote or created it

What it is called

Where and by whom it was published or produced

When it was published or produced (Umbach)

It doesn’t matter where you find your information, whether it is a book, an interview, an electronic resource, or from the Internet; when you use the work of others you must give them the credit they deserve. When in doubt, cite your source!

Helpful Resources for Students and Teachers

Sebranek, Patrick, Verne Meyer and Dave Kemper. Writers Inc. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1996.
Bachman, Laura, Diane Barnhart and Lois Krenzke, eds. Write for College. Wilmington, MA: Write Source, 1997.
The two books listed above explain MLA style (taught in CCPS schools) and can usually be found in the English Department or the Library Media Center.
Citing Sources in Research Papers. University of Oregon Libraries.
        <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/citing/>.
An excellent resource for citing Internet resources.
Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University. “Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It.” 17 April 2002
        <http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html>.
        This site provides a good overview about citing sources and gives both good and bad examples of citations.
Easybib.com
Free, online service that creates citations in MLA or APA style. <http://www.easybib.com>.
Landmark Citation Machine
Free, online service that creates citations in MLA or APA style. Our URL links you you the MLA format.
<http://citationmachine.net/index.php?new_style=1&reset=1#here>
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Works Cited

Allyn & Bacon/Longman. “Citing Electronic Resources in MLA style.” 18 April 2002
        <http://www.awl.com/englishpages/cyber2.htm>.
Umbach, Kenneth W. <kumbach@unlimited.net> “Citing sources in plain English.” E-mail to the author. 16 April 2002.
Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University. “Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It.”
        17 April 2002 <http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html>.

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Prepared by the Collier County Public Schools Plagiarism Committee—April, 2002

A Basic Guide to Bibliographic Citations

If you would like to print out your own sample of A Basic Guide To Bibliographic Citations it is available in PDF format for easy printing. (Please note that you will need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer.
Click Here or on the icon below to download Acrobat Reader.)

GO TO SECTION FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CITING SOURCES FROM:

BOOKS
A WORK IN AN ANTHOLOGY
ENCYCLOPEDIAS
MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS
INTERVIEWS
ELECTRONIC SOURCES
INTERNET SOURCES

BOOKS
One Author:
Brill, Marlene Tarq. Women for Peace. New York: Franklin Watts, 1997.
Two or Three Authors:
Walker, Alan, and Shipman, Pat. The Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human Origins. New York: A.
    A. Knopf, 1993.
Four or More Authors:
Sluis, Ralph, et. al. Aircraft of the Korean War. Chicago: Clarion, 1995.
No Author Given:
World of Scientific Discovery. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
An Editor but No Single Author:
Willis, Roy, ed. World Mythology. New York: H. Holt, 1996.
A WORK IN AN ANTHOLOGY
Cooke, Carolyn. “Bob Darling.” The Best American Short Stories. Ed. E. Annie Proulx. Boston: Houghton
    Mifflin, 1997. 40-53.
A Previously Published Article in a Collection:
McClintock, James, I. “White Logic: Jack London’s Short Stories.” (1975): 32. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century
Literary Criticism. Ed. Dennis Poupard. 9. Detroit: Gale, 1983. 273-275.
ENCYCLOPEDIAS
An Unsigned Article:
“Borghese.” Encyclopedia Americana. International ed. 1998.
A Signed Article:
Smiley, J.H. “Tobago.” World Book Encyclopedia. 1998 ed.
MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS
An Article from a Quarterly or Monthly Magazine:
Gray, Peter. “Legislative Background: Recent Action on Medical Liability Insurance.” Congressional
Digest. Feb. 2003: 45-47.
An Article from a Weekly Magazine:
Fineman, Howard. “Bush and God.” Newsweek. 10 Mar. 2003: 22-30.
An Article from a Daily Newspaper:
Landro, Laura. “Blood Mix-Ups Can Be Deadly, but They Also Can Be Prevented.” The Wall Street
Journal. 27 Feb. 2003: D:4.
INTERVIEWS
McGowan, William. Personal interview. 25 Feb. 2003.
Couric, Katie. “Interview with Bill Clinton.” Today. NBC, WNBC, New York, 5 Nov. 2002.
ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
“Manatee.” Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2003. CD-ROM.    Microsoft. 2002.
INTERNET
Professional Site:
What is MLA Style? Modern Language Association of America. 17 Oct. 2001 <http://www.mla.org.>
Personal Site:
Adams, Kate. Home page. 14 Sept. 2002 <http://www.drizzle.com/~kate/life/tri/index.html>.
Article in a Reference Database:
"Haiti." Flags of the World. 18 May 2002. Flags of the World. 27 Apr. 2003
    <http://www.fotw.net/flags/ht.html>.
Work from a Subscription Service:
Hanchet, William. "Lincoln’s Assassination." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online. Naples High
    School Lib., Naples, FL. 5 Mar. 2003 <http://go.grolier.com>.
“Clone and Cloning.” Gale Encyclopedia of Science. 2nd ed. 6 vols. Gale Group, 2001. Student
    Resource Center Silver. Naples High School Lib., Naples, FL. 13 Apr. 2003
    <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.
Dobie, Michael. “The Eating-Disordered Male Athlete”. Eating Disorders. Rpt. in Contemporary Issues
    Companion Series. Ed. Myra H. Immell Greenhaven Press, 1999. From Micheal Dobie. “Losing
    Weight, Losing Lives. “Newsday, 28 Dec.1997. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Naples High
    School Lib., Naples, FL. 5 Mar. 2003 <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>
Koretz, Gene. "Nothing Dismal About These Guys.” Business Week 26 Nov 2001: 1. Academic ASAP.
    Naples High School Lib., Naples, FL. 5 Mar. 2003 <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.
Wood, Anthony, R. “What You Need to Know About Snow.” Philadelphia Inquirer 20 Jan. 2003:np. SIRS
    Researcher. SIRS Knowledge Source. Naples high School Lib., Naples, FL. 19 Feb. 2003
    <http:/?websetup.sirs.com>.
“Netherlands.” CountryWatch. Naples High School Lib., Naples, FL. 23 Feb. 2003
    <http://www.countrywatch.com>.
“The Wolf Within.” Weekly Reader Senior. 10 Jan. 2003. NewsBank Kids Page. 19 Jan. 2003
    <http://infoweb.newsbank.com>.
Image or Photograph:
“Great White Shark.” Photograph. 12 Mar. 2003
    < http://tom.monkeyarm.com/greatwhite/images.htm>.