SOWK 4613 Human Diversity and Social Work: Citing Sources

What is plagiarism? Not crediting information from another author's ideas or words, or sites with facts, visuals, artwork, music, and more.
Based on the American Psychological Association 's Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (see the link below), Standard Research and Publication, 8:11 Plagiarism, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2010) pointedly states, "Researchers do not claim the words and ideas of another as their own; they give credit where credit is due" (p. 15). One can easily see the straightforwardness of the word choice and principle the Publication Manual references in one compound sentence. The informal language used eliminates debate or what if or excuses. It is considered unethical to plagiarize.

When incorporating another author's words, ideas, format, or outline into one's own work, proper credit must be given to that author.

Why do you need to cite the sources you use for your papers?*

1. Your professors expect you to read about the research of others and to bring together their ideas in such a way that makes sense to you and will make sense to your readers. Therefore, it's essential for you to cite your sources in any research paper you write. The academic reasons for doing so are to give credit to those who have done the original research and written the article or book, and to allow readers (your professors) to look at them if needed to find out if you have properly understood what the author was trying to say.
2. On a practical level, citing your sources is a way to show that you've done the assignment. If your paper contains no citations, the implication is that you have done a piece of original research, but that probably was not the assignment. Citations (along with the bibliography) show that you have consulted a variety of resources as the assignment required. They're also an acknowledgement of your indebtedness to those authors.
3. So you don't feel you need to hide the fact that you're drawing from one of your sources. That's what it's all about.

*Adapted from: Taylor, Bill. "A letter to my students." Academic Integrity Seminar. 29 Feb. 2008

Please click on the link to visit an overview from the NSU Libraries that is designed to provide tips and resources to assist you in developing a research topic, finding and evaluating information, and writing your paper.

A citation reflects all of the information a person would need to locate a particular source. For example, basic citation information for a book consists of the name(s) of author(s) or editor(s), the title of the book, the name of the publisher, the place of publication, and the most recent copyright date.

A citation style dictates the information necessary for a citation and how the information is ordered, as well as punctuation and other formatting.

A bibliography lists citations for all of the relevant resources a person consulted during his or her research.

In an annotated bibliography, each citation is followed by a brief note or annotation that describes and/or evaluates the source and the information found in it.

A works cited list presents citations for those sources referenced in a particular paper, presentation, or other composition.

An in-text citation consists of just enough information to correspond to a source's full citation in a Works Cited list. In-text citations often require a page number (or numbers) showing exactly where relevant information was found in the original source.