Citing Sources: Citing Sources

There are many websites you can go to in order to learn how to cite sources. Here is are a few places you can go to for help.

You must cite your sources whenever you use anything that originated from someone or someplace else. This includes:

• use another person's idea, opinion, work, or theory
• any fact, statistic, graph, or chart that is not common knowledge
• quote, paraphrase, or summarize another person's actual spoken or written words
• use any image or illustration created by someone else
• any piece of music written by someone else
• any interview conducted with another person
• reuse, including re-posting, any electronic media (web page, audio, images, video, etc.)

You do not need to cite "common knowledge". (i.e. George Washington was the first president of the United States.)

When paraphrasing, only a small piece from an author's work is paraphrased. (i.e. only paraphrase two paragraphs from a five page article)

A summary is a broad overview of an author's work and is considerably shorter than the original. A proper summary includes:

• identify and restate the main points of the author(s) in your own words
• do not add your opinions, interpretations, or thoughts to the summary
• the summary should not change the meaning of the original source
• cite the source