This document discusses the proper use of sources in academic writing. It explains that using others' ideas without giving them proper credit through citations and a references page is considered plagiarism, which is a serious academic offense. The document provides examples of how to properly quote and cite sources in the text of a paper using MLA or other citation styles. It emphasizes the importance of including both in-text citations and a references page to avoid plagiarizing others' work.

1. Proper Use of Sources T. Greene Kingsborough Community College

2. Proper Use of Sources In this presentation, you will learn how to use sources correctly in your writing and how to avoid plagiarism.

3. Why is it important to use sources correctly? In the world of research and scholarship, ideas belong to the people who think them up. Scholars make their living off of trading their ideas in the same way that songwriters make money off their music or moviemakers make money from DVD sales In the same way that there are laws that prevent making illegal copies of a song or a movie, it is also inappropriate (and sometimes illegal) to make unauthorized copies of people’s ideas, written work, lectures or Web site contents.

4. Why is it important to use sources correctly? Yet, at the same time, it is important to scholars that they make ideas available for others to use. Sharing and using ideas (but not stealing them) increases everyone’s knowledge.

5. Why is it important to use sources correctly? So scholars have developed systems of rules and conventions that allow researchers to use each other’s ideas, while ensuring that the “owner” of an idea gets credit for having conceived it. Quotations, citations and references are the tools used by professional scholars (and students in this course) to give credit where it is due.

6. What is correct use of sources? Whenever you use someone else’s ideas, you must clearly indicate that the ideas are not your own and give credit to the “owner” of the material. If you Quote text from a book, magazine, lecture, broadcast or Web site Paraphrase material from one of these sources Use an image, diagram, table or figure from a published source Present another person’s idea, opinion or theory … you must cite your source.

7. What is Plagiarism? Plagiarism is presenting another person’s ideas, words, theories, opinions, images or other information as your own. As a violation of the academic honesty code, academic institutions take plagiarism very seriously.

8. How serious is plagiarism? Plagiarism is considered a form of cheating, so incidents of plagiarism are reported to the Dean of Students office, and incident reports go into your academic record. At some schools you can be expelled for plagiarism. Kingsborough doesn’t have a policy that expels first-time offenders, but a second offense is much more serious. Even a first offense can prevent you from getting accepted into some academic programs (such as the School of Nursing) and will follow you as part of your record when you apply to another school.

9. What’s the difference between plagiarism and misuse of sources? Plagiarism is a serious offense that gets reported to the Dean’s office. The following are some examples of plagiarism: Copying your paper entirely or partly from a book or other published source without giving credit Buying a paper from a papermill or custom paper-writing service Allowing someone else to write your paper and presenting it as your own work Misuse of sources is often accidentally forgetting to give credit or not knowing how to give credit. The following are some examples of misuse: Forgetting to include a bibliography or list of works cited with an assignment Forgetting or not knowing about the need to quote something taken from an outside source Copy/pasting a picture or chunk of text from a Web site without saying where it came from

10. So the takeaway from this presentation so far is this: Never turn in something you did not write yourself as your own work, and always cite when you use information from another source.

11. How can teachers know if an essay comes from an Internet site or paper mill? The image below is a screen capture of a program called EVE. This program is one of several that I sometimes use to search Internet paper mills—even ones that claim to be hidden—to see if a paper is original work. Usually I have no reason to suspect papers and don’t have to check them. But this program—and others like turnitin.com—are at my disposal. I shouldn’t have to make this warning, and it doesn’t apply to most students (so flip to the next slide, please). But if you are the type of student who might be inclined to buy a paper, know that I will catch you, and you will wind up in the Dean’s office.

12. Also feel free to pass this advice on to your friends, if you think they might be inclined to buy from paper mills: Most of the papers you can buy on-line are not as good as something you can write yourself. Often students get caught because the papers they bought are themselves plagiarized from published sources that turn up on something as simple as a Google search. Writers who supply papers to mills are usually not very good, so even something purported to be an “A” paper is typically not (actual good writers have better ways of making money than writing for mills).

13. So how do I use a source correctly? A correct use of a source has three components: The other person’s idea (usually text) that you are using, enclosed in quotes if necessary The citation: identifies briefly where the information came from The reference: that gives the complete name of the source with information about how to find it

14. Example Suppose you have the quote below and you want to use in a paper you are writing: The lions of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction. (This is a line from a poem called “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” by William Blake.)

15. Example Since William Blake, and not you, originally said this, you have to put it in quotation marks and cite the source. The lions of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

16. If a citation is missing any of these components… Quotation marks (unless it’s a paraphrase) to show that the information came from another source Citation that shows the author’s name (either as part of the text or inside the parentheses) and page number Entry in the “Works Cited” list that gives the complete reference … then it is a misuse of the source.

17. …but I learned to use footnotes. The citation style demonstrated in this lesson is only one of several different sets of citation rules used by researchers in different fields. Some styles use footnotes or end notes. Some styles put the year of publication into the parentheses with the name of the author and page number. Some include the complete reference in the footnote instead of having a list of works cited. But all styles share the same vital elements: they give credit to the originator of the idea and provide the necessary information for the reader to backtrack to the original source.

18. Which style should I use? For this class, the default citation style is the MLA style (check the course handouts for more information on how it works). If you are used to another style or know that a different style is used in your professional field, you are free to use that style instead. As long as you are correctly and consistently citing sources according to one of the defined styles, you are not misusing the source in this course.

19. Example Suppose the text to the right is your paper, and you’ve reached the point where you want to put your quote: Many famous poets in history have had interesting things to say about teaching and learning. Sometimes the things they have written are not what you would expect.

20. Example When you insert your quote from William Blake, you put quotation marks around it to show that it’s not your writing. But the citation isn’t complete yet. Many famous poets in history have had interesting things to say about teaching and learning. Sometimes the things they have written are not what you would expect. For example, one famous poet wrote “The lions of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.”

21. Example The last piece of this part of the citation is the name of the author and the page number in the book (or other source) where you read the quote. Many famous poets in history have had interesting things to say about teaching and learning. Sometimes the things they have written are not what you would expect. For example, one famous poet wrote “The lions of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction” (Blake, 56).

22. Example Another way to cite the source is to include the name of the author in the text of your sentence, in which case you can leave the author’s name out of the parentheses at the end. Many famous poets in history have had interesting things to say about teaching and learning. Sometimes the things they have written are not what you would expect. For example, William Blake wrote “The lions of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction” (56).

23. Example Both of these ways of showing the citation are correct, and you can mix & match them in the same document. Which one you use is a question of style and personal preference. For example, William Blake wrote “The lions of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction” (56). For example, a famous poet wrote “The lions of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction” (Blake, 56).

24. Example There’s one more very important part to the correct use of sources. For example, a famous poet wrote “The lions of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction” (Blake, 56). Works Cited Blake, William. “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” New York: Signet Books, 1976. The last page of your essay or document should be a page called “Works Cited.” This page contains the complete information on the sources cited in the text.

25. Example For example, a famous poet wrote “The lions of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction” (Blake, 56). Works Cited Blake, William. “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” New York: Signet Books, 1976. This allows the reader to backtrack the information that you cite in the text to the original source. In this case, your reader would know, even though you didn’t say so in the text, that this quote appears in a copy of “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” published by Signet Books in 1976. Every citation in the text of your document must have a corresponding entry in the list of works cited.