How to cite sources and avoid plagiarism

Citations credit the people whose ideas and words you build on, and they let your reader find the original source. In academic work, presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own is plagiarism, even when it happens by accident.

Good citing is also good for your writing. Well-chosen sources show that your argument rests on evidence.

As a rule, cite whenever you use something that is not your own thinking or common knowledge.

• Direct quotations, which also go in quotation marks.
• Paraphrased ideas, arguments, or findings from someone else.
• Statistics, data, charts, and images.
• Facts that are not widely known or that a reader may want to check.

A real paraphrase restates the idea in your own words and sentence structure, not just a few swapped synonyms. Read the passage, close the source, write the idea from memory, and then compare to make sure you kept the meaning.

A paraphrase still needs a citation, because the idea belongs to the source.

APA, MLA, and Chicago are common styles, and they format citations differently. APA is often used in social sciences and puts the author and year in the text. MLA is common in humanities and uses the author and page number. Chicago offers footnotes or author-date options.

Follow the style named in your assignment brief, and use a consistent format throughout.

The easiest way to cite correctly is to record details when you find a source: author, title, publication, date, page numbers, and the link or database. Add a one-line note about why it is useful.

Doing this as you go avoids the late-night scramble to rebuild a reference list, and it keeps you from losing track of which ideas came from where.