Citing Your Sources

Citing your sources is how to inform your readers that specific information in your work is from an outside source. It enables the reader to find that source again including general information such as:

• the author of the source
• the title of the work
• the name and location of the company that published the source
• the date the source was published
• the page numbers of the material you are borrowing

Why Cite Sources?

It is important for writers to cite sources:

• to prevent plagiarism and uphold academic integrity
• to recognize the work of others
• to provide authority to your work and to position your work in context
• to help future researchers and yourself easily locate sources

Plagiarism is defined by The Student Code for Midlands Technical College in this way:

"'Plagiarism' is defined as the appropriation of any other person’s work and the unacknowledged incorporation of that work in one’s own work." -p. 61 of the MTC Student Handbook

Plagiarism may be:

• Deliberate (intentionally presenting someone else’s work as your own)
• Accidental (wrongly or unsatisfactorily citing ideas and words from a source)

It may not be possible for your professor to establish whether plagiarized work was deliberate or accidental, but in either case, you and your professor are placed in a difficult situation.

Scholarship requires you to learn from others, while academic integrity demands work resulting from your own effort. As a student, you will synthesize others’ knowledge as well as your own insights to create new scholarship. You must recognize the portion of your work that comes from others’ work to meet standards of academic integrity, and you this is done by citing the work of others.

Plagiarism occurs when you neglect to recognize the work of others and do not appropriately cite your sources.

Academic Integrity Check

A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism