What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the act of taking another person's writing, conversation, song, or even idea and
passing it off as your own. This includes information from web pages, books, songs, television shows,
email messages, interviews, articles, artworks or any other medium. Whenever you paraphrase, summarize,
or take words, phrases, or sentences from another person's work, it is necessary to indicate the source
of the information within your paper using an internal citation. It is not enough to just
list the source in a bibliography at the end of your paper. Failing to properly quote, cite or
acknowledge someone else's words or ideas with an internal citation is plagiarism.
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What is an Internal Citation?An internal, in-text, or
parenthetical citation refers to the practice of giving credit to an author, singer, or speaker by
citing their words/ideas within your paper. This internal citation is then referenced at the end
of your paper in your 'Works Cited' list (see below).
Internal citations are sometimes called parenthetical citations because they're enclosed by
parentheses. It's helpful to think of internal citations as a kind of "tag" indicating what
you've borrowed from an author. For every sentence, phrase or idea you borrow you must "tag" it
with an internal citation. Each internal citation is then listed alphabetically in a 'Works Cited' page
at the end of your paper.
Borrowing the work's structure, format or style without giving credit is also considered plagiarism.
Tt is important to remember that merely changing the wording is not enough.
Style Guides such as MLA, APA, or Turabian tell you how to cite sources "internally." Below are
some web sites that you may also find useful:
MLA Parenthetical Documentation -
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/research/mlaparen.html
APA Parenthetical Documentation -
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/research/apaintext.html
Turabian Documentation Guide -
http://juno.concordia.ca/help/howto/turabian.pdf.
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What is a Works Cited Page?A Works Cited page, also known as a
bibliography or reference list, comes at the end of your paper listing all the works (books,
articles, Internet sites, etc.) you've quoted, paraphrased or otherwise used to create your paper. The
citations are usually listed alphabetically by the authors' last names and typically include the name of
the publication, the publisher/date of publication, and the volume, issue and pages if applicable. How
works are internally cited and how the citations are arranged in the "Works Cited" page will be
determined by the Style Guide (MLA, APA and Turabian) specified by your teacher. |