Plagiarism and Citation Basics

1. Plagiarism and Citation Basics Guidelines for Documenting Sources and Making a Bibliography

2. Why Research? • We research because we want to explore interesting topics by: • Incorporating others’ ideas and information • Exploring our own thoughts and opinions in relation to other people’s • Believe it or not, you were not born an expert on your topic! Therefore, you must research and cite your sources.

3. What is MLA Style? • The Modern Language Association (MLA) developed a style guide for academic writing. Part of the guide deals with ways to document where you got your information from. • MLA provides guidelines for the creation of a bibliography “Works Cited” page, as well as the parenthetical (within text) citation. • Students are expected to use MLA when writing pieces that require information to be cited from other sources.

4. Why is it Important that I Cite Sources? • As a writer, it is your responsibility to give proper credit to your sources. It is also very important that you give this credit in MLA style. • You MUST give credit to the “owner” of the information that you use in your paper, otherwise you are STEALING!

5. What is Plagiarism? • Anytime you use a direct quote, or even change an author’s words, you are using somebody else’s thoughts • Simply changing the wording (paraphrasing) is not enough; you must cite your sources. • Basically, any idea or fact that you received from a source needs to be cited • Any idea or fact that is common knowledge does not have to be cited. For example, facts like Walt Disney is well known for creating the cartoon character,Mickey Mouse, is common knowledge. (not plagiarism) • Raised on a farm near Marceline, Missouri, Walt became interested in drawing at an early age, selling his first sketches to neighbors when he was only seven years old (PLAGIARISM- if not cited correctly) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsY3EA84ynY

6. Formatting the First Page of your Paper • The upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, teacher’s name, the course, and the date. Be sure to double space • Create a header at the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with the page number

8. What is a Parenthetical Citation • When a writer directly puts into the text a note from where he or she got the information. Parenthetical or “in-text” citation allows your reader to know from what source each idea/fact came. • This is how it looks: “In 2007, 37 percent of American adults sought medical information from the internet regarding a health problem they were experiencing before consulting a doctor” (Smith 38). • Notice that the author’s name and page number are in parenthesis.

9. What is a “Works Cited” Page? • The name that MLA gives to a bibliography. • It is a listing of all the sources you cited in the body of your paper. • At last page of essay. “Works Cited” should be typed in the top center of the page • Sources should be listed alphabetically by the first word or name of the entry.

11. Web Citation • Author's last name, author's first name. “Title of article.” Title of website. Publisher/Sponsor of the Website, Date of publication. Web. Date Month Year you accessed the article. <URL> • Let’s practice • http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/09/the-rove-presidency/6132/&gt

12. Beware of Certain Cites! • You should know by now that WIKIPEDIA and .com cites are unreliable sources • Stick to .edu, .org, or .gov sites, which come from reliable education institutions, organizations, or the government.

13. Online Tools and Resources for Writing Citations • www.easybib.com- automated bibliography creater. • MLA Citation Handout- has common forms of sources for citation • Important Information Needed for Creating a Bibliography- tool that will help you collect the necessary information for citing each of the common sources