Skip to Main Content

Citation and Writing Style Guides: Why Cite?

Quick Tip!

Citations help others locate the sources you used in your paper.

Citing your sources accurately adds credibility to your research.

Citations connect your work to the work of others.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Union College Statement on Plagiarism (Office of the Dean of Studies)

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use:

- someone's idea, opinion, statement, or theory not your own;
- any facts, statistics, graphs, images—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge (including definitions);
- quotes from someone's spoken or written words; or
- paraphrase of  someone's spoken or written words.

Deliberate Plagiarism - 

- Copying or buying someone's paper
- Using a paper from another class
- Using information from a source without citing

You Quote It, You Note It! (Acadia University)

General Guide

Grammar Tips

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips

The Elements of Style - This is the classic text on clear and plain writing, now somewhat dated but still very practical.