Citing Sources in College Research Papers
As a college student, you are required to cite all published quotations, ideas, arguments, research and obscure facts that you have used to write your paper. There are two main parts to MLA and APA citaiton, the in-text citation and the Works Cited/References list. When using MLA or APA, it is important to format your citations exactly as stated paying close attention to punctuation, capitalization and italics.
Plagiarism is the copying or close imitation of information from a published source
Plagiarism is not tolerated at the college level. If a student is caught plagiarizing, he or she could fail the class or even be expelled. To avoid plagiarism you must put quotation marks around information that is directly copied from a source and cite all thoughts, ideas, arguments, research, quotations and obscure facts taken from your sources using a recognized citation format like APA.
Why Cite?
The point of citation is to give credit to the author of your sources and explain to your professor where you found the information to support the argument of your paper.
