Citing sources

A guide for high school students to citing sources from print and the web.

By Melissa Thibault

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Related topics

• Learn more about Plagiarism, citing sources, fair use, public domain, research skills, and thinking skills.

Legal

Giving credit to the source of information is essential to academic success. You must give others credit for their work; otherwise you are cheating. Plagiarism — using the words, opinions or ideas of someone else without giving credit to the source — is like stealing. The word “plagiarism” comes from the Latin word plagiarius meaning kidnaper. In this case "kidnaping" is a capturing of ideas, theft of the "intellectual property" of the person whose work you are using.

When (and how) do I cite my source?

Common knowledge, facts everyone knows presented without any opinion or interpretation, is the only thing you may include in your paper that does not require a citation. Everything else, all ideas located in your research, must clearly indicate the source of the information and give credit where credit is due. This is a component of academic integrity and is essential to successful completion of a research assignment.

Paraphrasing, reorganizing or rephrasing is not enough. First of all, when you paraphrase you must make sure you are accurately conveying the author’s original ideas, you must not change the nature of their ideas when you change words. Second, you must clearly indicate the author or creator of the work as the source, and provide sufficient bibliographic information so the reader may locate the original materials if they so choose.

More information, including examples of proper use of paraphrasing, when to document, and citation style guides to document sources, is available from the OWL at the Purdue University. Style guides vary by discipline and instructor, ask your teacher which style they require.

Multimedia

Just like quotes and facts taken from print research, you will be using images and other media in your assignments. No matter the format, these are someone’s intellectual property; you are using them to support or enhance your paper or product. Since these are not your work but the work of others, using pictures, sounds and other media in your presentation requires giving credit to the source. Depending upon the final product, credit to the source may not be enough. If the image is a part of a webpage that may be posted on the Internet, permission for use must be obtained.

An excellent guide to this topic, Student Guidelines for Multimedia and Web Page Production, can be found on the Springfield Township High School Virtual Library website. In addition to a clear explanation of Fair Use, this site offers a list of sites where students may find images which fall within public domain as well as a sample permission letter.