Health Science Subject Guide

• Leaving out quotation marks when quoting a source text, even if you supply a citation.
• Leaving out the citation, even if you include the appropriate quotation marks.
• Paraphrasing ideas, theories, or arguments from a source text without an appropriate citation.
• Not including a quoted source in your Works Cited or Bibliography page.
• Copying a paper from a source text without proper acknowledgment.
• Buying a paper from a research service, term paper mill, or classmate.

Give credit whenever you use:

• another person's idea, opinion, or theory
• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings, photographs -- any pieces of information -- that are not  common knowledge
• quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words
• a paraphrase of another person's spoken or written words

The only time you do not have to give credit to source material is when it provides you with ‘common knowledge’ facts.

• When taking notes, put noticeable quotation marks around any direct quotes.
• If you paraphrase in your notes, be sure that it is a true paraphrase, not just moving a few words around.
• Always include the page number when you take notes – even if you paraphrase.
• Cite every piece of information that is not a) the result of your own research, or b) common knowledge.
• Make it clear at the beginning of sentences that what comes next is someone else's idea:
  • According to Smith...
  • Jones says...
  • In his 1987 study, Robinson proved...

• When in doubt, provide a citation.