Citing the Sources for Your Essay

Before you write your rough draft, you should gather up and check your notes that you made when you were researching your topic. You will need to refer to those notes in order to give proper credit to the source of any direct quotes or ideas that you use in your paper. Of course direct quotes should be in quotation marks, but even when you paraphrase someone else's words, you need to cite the source to give them proper credit. The only time you do not need to cite your sources is when you are writing your own words and ideas or when you are making statements that are common knowledge.

This is important because if you do not show that you are quoting from or got an idea from an article, a person, a book, paper or magazine etc. then you are guilty of plagiarism. Your paper must be in your own words and show clearly when you are using information from another source. It is quite obvious then that it is also plagiarism if you buy an essay from a business that sells essays or if you use someone else’s essay that they wrote. You must do your own work. Using another person’s work is unfair to them and to your school and most importantly to yourself because you are cheating yourself of some important learning by copying work from others. If that is not enough reason for you, you may want to remember that plagiarizing a paper will result in a failing grade on the paper, possibly a failing grade for the course, and possibly being expelled from the school.

When you do use an idea or a quote from another person or an article, you need to be able to cite it properly. There are various ways of doing this for an essay. Your teacher should tell you which style she/he wants you to use. If she/he does not tell you, then ask. Do not assume that it will be the same style that your last instructor wanted you to use. For one thing, different subjects often use different styles of citation. For example, business, psychology, and English all use different styles for citing sources. As well, the citation of books, magazines or newspapers, and online articles all vary.

When you know exactly how you must cite your sources, you should make sure that all the necessary information about your sources is included in your notes. You will need to use that information as you go along when writing the paper and especially when you write the bibliography.

If you require more detailed information than that provided by your instructor on how to cite sources, then check the student information for your school. Distance learning and online learning students should be able to find this on their school’s website. Most schools have the information about the consequences of plagiarism for students and also provide information in libraries and/or writing labs about how to avoid plagiarism by citing your sources properly. It is best to check with your instructor and your school first for information, but if necessary you can check the link below for excellent information about how to cite your sources.