MLA Citation Style -- 7TH EDITION

Most research projects begin with and build on previous publications on a given topic.  When the work of other researchers is borrowed, the sources must be documented by indicating what was borrowed and where it came from. Doing so allows the researcher to:

• contribute to expansion of knowledge
• avoid charges of plagiarism
• provide a means for readers to evaluate the new research relative to the sources that were used, AND to look up the sources for more details

Plagiarism

The Cornerstone syllabus refers to the UNI academic ethics policy which notes that  "plagiarism is defined as the process of stealing or passing off as one's own the ideas or words of another, or presenting as one's own an idea or product which is derived from an existing source.

It is not acceptable for the work or ideas of another scholar to be presented as a student's own or to be utilized in a paper or project without proper citation. To avoid any appearance of plagiarism or accidental plagiarism, it is important that all students become fully cognizant of the citation procedures utilized in their own discipline and in the classes which they take. The plea of ignorance regarding citation procedures or of carelessness in citation is not a compelling defense against allegations of plagiarism. A college student, by the fact that he or she holds that status, is expected to understand the distinction between proper scholarly use of others' work and plagiarism."

Avoiding Unintentional Plagiarism

Sources such as the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provide tips to help avoid unintentional plagiarism; these involve, for example, taking careful notes so when you get to the writing stage, you'll be able to distinguish between:

• your own original ideas
• the summaries you wrote of others' ideas, findings, opinions, conclusions, etc. and
• quotations - exact words - from other sources

Examples of What Must Be Cited

• exact quote from original source (with page number)
• paraphrased text from original source (citing the page number), or discussion of text (citing whole work or specific pages)
• the ideas, arguments, opinions, and conclusions from others (citing the work as a whole or specific page numbers), that are not common knowledge
• unique phrases or wording from others
• multimedia creations of others
• statistics from government agencies

Examples of What Does Not Need to Be Cited

• "common knowledge" - information that is widely known  (for example, dates of historic events, biographical information about an author, name of the current president of the United States) or can be located easily in general reference sources
• common phrases, proverbs, sayings, etc.