When writing an essay, you will often have to borrow ideas from someone else. Whenever you include someone else's work in your paper, it is important to give them credit. If you don't, you are committing plagiarism. In addition to this, it is important that you give your sources credit in the correct way. This means having a complete works cited page and proper in-text citations. Since this is part of essay formatting, both the MLA and APA have guidelines for citing sources. Read the boxes below to learn about plagiarism and some citation basics. Use the drop-down menu to navigate through different editions of MLA and APA citation guidelines (the most recent edition for MLA is 9th, while it's 7th for APA).
When you take someone else’s work, words, and/or ideas and then use them as your own, you are committing plagiarism. Besides this traditional definition, plagiarism also includes:
Sometimes you may even plagiarize accidentally. Luckily there are plenty of resources to prevent that from happening. Just remember that whenever you use or borrow someone else's work, you need to cite it!
If you are citing sources in your paper, you need these two things: A references page/works cited page and in-text citations.
The references page/ works cited page should always be on its own separate page at the end of your paper. The sources should have hanging indents and be listed in alphabetical order.
In-text citations are used in your actual paper to 1) acknowledge when you borrowed from another source and 2) direct your reader to the corresponding source on your reference page/works cited page. In-text citations are set apart from the rest of your text with parentheses and are always located at the end of a sentence.
These video links offer quick help for MLA and APA citations:
Still need help understanding plagiarism and academic integrity? Check out these additional resources?
