Citations and Plagiarism Prevention

Citing Sources

When a teacher asks you to write a report or create a slideshow (or any other type of homework/essay, etc...) you will look for information in many different places.

The places where you find information are called sources.

It is very important to name (or cite) the sources you use when you write a report so that the reader does not think you made up the information yourself.

If you do not cite your source, you are plagiarizing.

Plagiarism is when you copy someone else’s work or use their ideas without giving them credit.

You must give credit in a footnote or a listing on your Works Cited page or Bibliography page, and you must use quotation marks if you used someone else’s exact words.

 It is not a good idea to copy someone’s words without giving them credit, and in many cases it is illegal.

A Works Cited page is a list of citations that includes all books, newspaper articles, magazine articles, websites, and other sources of information cited in an essay or a research paper.

Remember to do the following as you create your Works Cited page:

• List citations in ABC order.
• Font size should be 12.
• Font style should be Times New Roman.
• Line spacing should be double.
• First line of your citation should be left aligned.
• Additional lines should be indented (this is called a "hanging indent")
• Please, resist the temptation to number or bullet your citations.

Citing Pictures or Images

Bibliographic information – when you copy something from the internet (information or an image), you need to cite it. That means to give credit to the teacher where you found your information or your image.

When you cite it, you gather bibliographic information about the source. In order to credit pictures or images in a report or in a slideshow, you have 2 options:

1. Place a caption under the image. When you place a note under the picture, it is called a caption. The caption is a description or a phrase accompanying a photo/image meant to explain your source. It will be the full citation.
    
2. Place a caption under the image with a number….like Image 1. Then you would place the full citation in the Works Cited page or the Bibliography page.