APA: Avoiding Plagiarism and Documenting Sources

Citing Your Sources 

 Whenever you use somebody else's ideas in your research paper you must cite your sources by:

1. Acknowledging the source in the text of your paper (in-text documentation).
2. Giving the complete source citation in your References list.

You Must Cite Your Sources When...

• Quoting any words that are not your own.
  A direct quote means to repeat another source word for word, using double quotation marks " ".

• Summarizing facts and ideas from a source.
  Summarizing means to take the key ideas from another source and shorten them, using your own words. For more about summarizing, visit the University of Idaho Advanced Technical Writing page.

• Paraphrasing a source.
  Paraphrasing means to put somebody else's ideas into your own words. For more about how to paraphrase a source visit Purdue University Online Writing Lab.

• When using factual information that is not common knowledge.

Short Quotations

When you use somebody else's words, it is a direct quote. Short quotes must be inside double quotation marks and you must give the author, year followed by the page number.

For example: Neurobiologist, Karni (1992) told the newspaper Newsday, "It looks as if dream time is

crucial to the learning experience" (n.p.).

Block Quotations

A quotation longer than 40 words lines must be put into a block quote.

• NO quotation marks
• Start on a new line
• Indent one-half (1/2") inch from the left margin
• Double-space the quotation
• Indent the second and any additional paragraphs five space
• Provide author, year, and specific page citation in the text and include a complete reference in the references list.

For example:

DuBois (1949) proclaimed,

Of all the civil rights for which the world has struggled and fought for 5,000 years, the right to learn

is undoubtedly the most fundamental.... The freedom to learn ... has been bought by bitter sacrifice.

And whatever we may think of the curtailment of other civil rights, we should fight to the last ditch

to keep open the right to learn, the right to have examined in our schools not only what we believe

but what we do not believe; not only what our leaders say, but what the leaders of other groups and

nations, and the leaders of other centuries have said. We must insist upon this to give our children the

fairness of a start which will equip them with such an array of facts and such an attitude toward truth

that they can have a real chance to judge what the world is, and what its greater minds have thought

it might be. (p. 230-231)

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