When you are quoting or paraphrasing another person's thoughts or ideas, you must cite where those thoughts or ideas have come from. If you do not cite your sources, you are plagiarizing. Plagiarism is an academic offence at UNBC. See the "Undergraduate Regulations and Policies" section of the University Calendar (Sections 45-47) for a description of, and consequences as a result of, this offence.
For tips about how to lessen the chances of plagiarizing, see the Learning Skills Centre's information on plagiarism at http://www.unbc.ca/academic_success_centre/writing_resources.html (under "Referencing/Citations").
Citing sources serves two purposes:
- The original author is given credit for his or her thoughts or ideas.
- The reader is given the information he or she needs to find an original source in order to get clarification, get more information, or assess the credibility of the source.
Consistency and accuracy are very important when you are citing sources. Pay attention to details: order of elements in the citation, punctuation, spacing, indentation, underlining, and capitalization. All these factors contribute to making the information in the citation clear to the reader.
