Trout Library Blog

With the last month of the semester approaching, many of you are likely working on major papers and projects. I thought that this would be a good time to review what plagiarism entails and the importance of citing your sources properly.

Plagiarism is using the words, thoughts, or ideas of someone else without giving credit. It can take many forms and can be intentional or accidental. Below are some guidelines to follow:

• Quoting an author's exact words often strengthens your argument. When you do so, you must provide a citation for the source of those words immediately after the quotation.

• Sometimes you will paraphrase an author's words using your own words and phrasing. You must still provide a citation when you paraphrase in order to avoid plagiarism. So as not to plagiarize accidentally, you should compare your paraphrased writing with the author's exact words to make sure you have not copied phrases or sentences from the author​ without stating that you have done so.

• The original source must be cited even if the borrowed information is used for different purposes from those intended in the original source. If you organize your ideas in the same way in which an author organized his or her ideas, cite the source of the organizational scheme.

• Information drawn from personal communications, speeches, conversations, interviews and other spoken words must be documented with a citation.

• If multiple students write a paper as a collaborative group project, one of the authors cannot submit or reuse the paper for another assignment. Any information borrowed from a paper that you write collaboratively should include citations for the information taken from the original paper.

• Information that is commonly known by the public or the intended readers of a paper does not need to be cited. The general rule is that if you can find the information in at least five separate sources, a citation is not necessary. However, if you are not sure whether an idea is common knowledge, use caution and cite the source.

Five different citation styles are used at Harcum: APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), ASA (American Sociological Association), AMA (American Medical Association), and NLM (National Library of Medicine). APA is generally used in the social sciences with ASA being specific to sociology. MLA would be used in English courses and some of the humanities. MLA and NLM are used in the health sciences.

Typically a brief in-text citation is included at the end of a directly quoted or paraphrased comment in a paper, and a full citation is then listed in the References or Works Cited page at the end of the paper. Each citation format is different in terms of the placement of information as well as the rules regarding the use of italics, punctuation, capitalization, and whether to use a hanging indent. Ask your instructor or consult your syllabus to determine which style to use for your paper.

The Library has print manuals for each style on reserve behind the front desk. You may also consult our Cite Sources guide for tips and examples. Purdue OWL is another good resource to use for citation help. In addition, we created modules as a non-credit course in Canvas called Information Literacy & Library Resources. These are quick PowerPoint presentations and ungraded quizzes that are available for you in order to review and test your understanding and knowledge of each citation format used at Harcum. The PowerPoints are also available in the Information Literacy library guide, which you may access under the Getting Started menu on the Library's homepage.

If you have any questions about citations or any other research matter, please reach out to us. You may visit us in person during the posted Library hours, send an email to library@harcum.edu, use our chat service when it is available, or call us at 610-526-6085.