Plagiarism, Citation and Academic Honesty: Citing sources

The citation formats used most often at Nicolet College are APA and MLA. Your instructor should tell you what format to use, but please consult your instructor as soon as possible if you aren't sure.

Citation is a two part process, and in most cases, both parts MUST be present.

• The first part of a citation occurs within the body of your paper and appears at the point at which the words or ideas of someone else are used. 
• The second part of a citation occurs in a references or works cited page at the end of a paper, and contains the information necessary for the reader to find the same source. The following elements are typically present:
  • WHO wrote it (the author, artist, creator, singer, etc.)
  • WHEN it was published
  • WHAT it was called (title of the article, book, web page, picture, etc.)
  • WHERE it came from. (publisher and publisher location for a book; URL/link for a web page; or magazine/journal title, volume/issue number and pagination for an article; etc.

Citation is necessary if any of these are true: 

• You quote someone else (use the exact words of another person)
• You paraphrase someone else (you are using the ideas of someone else but expressing them in your own manner of speaking)
• You are summarizing someone else (condensing a large quantity of material into significantly fewer words)
• Someone else's work was critical to or inspired your work
• You are using someone else's words or ideas as a basis for your own work (think fanfic or movies based on books)
• You are using facts, information, data or other research that is not common knowledge to support your ideas
• You use images created by someone else. You should also cite yourself as a creator when you use your own.

Citation is not necessary when these are true:

• It is common knowledge
• You use your own original ideas

These fairly reliable (but not 100% accurate) citation builders may help you understand and correctly format citations.

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