Education Subject Guide

Why do we cite sources?

• Citing your sources of information helps the reader verify the origin of your information, and it shows evidence of your research.
• The authenticity of your information is established by citing and it enables your readers to locate your sources. 
• Not citing appropriately can get you accused of Plagiarism and is a serious academic issue.

A note to students about citation style guidelines: Many citation format guidelines are open to interpretation. For this reason your instructor is the final authority of the subject of citation for any given assignment.

So how do you cite sources? You can use online or physical resources to help you create citations, but most databases also offer basic citation resources. Remember to always double-check any citations created by a computer or database. They can and do make mistakes!

Learn why you should never just copy and paste or bookmark links from a library resource by using Permalinks.

You can also save your search results:

It is important to cite your sources to give credit to the author. Three of the most common citation styles are American Psychological Society (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), and The Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago Style). These styles also come with their own guidelines for formatting papers. Different academic disciplines use different styles because of the different ways that they may wish to convey information. Check with your professor about their preferred style (it is typically also listed in your syllabus) before starting your paper.

Video Transcript.

What is plagiarism?

To plagiarize is to use someone else's work, whether published or unpublished, thru direct quotation or paraphrase, without giving credit to the author.  Copying and pasting directly from the Internet or from online works is also plagiarism

Check the Student Academic Responsibilities section of the Hiram College Catalog for the definition of plagiarism and its repercussions.

The Hiram College Writing Center's Style Guide also provides resources to help you avoid plagiarism. 

Avoiding plagiarism:

This page from Purdue University should help you avoid plagiarism: Quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing

And several more pages from Purdue University to hone your skills at paraphrasing:

Paraphrasing Basics

Paraphrasing Exercises and Answers