Bibliographic citations in the New Catholic Encyclopedia
How you cite depends on the citation style you're following. Each style has a guide. You can find these in the catalogue. You can also ask at the Kelly Library reference desk or use the links below. What almost all styles have in common is a standard way of saying (1) how to refer to the information (e.g. title); (2) who created the information; (3) who published the information; and (4) when it was published.
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An old thought feeds a new one.
Photo source: Luc De Leeuw.
Gratefully adapted with a CC license from Flickr.
Ideas, by nature, fertilize. An old thought feeds a new one, a new thought breeds fresh habits, and youthful thoughts and habits run riot over old ones. Stealing someone else’s ideas is plagiarism; universities take that seriously. But a key part of scholarship is expressing other people’s thoughts to develop your own. You need to refer to others' work; but you don't want to be a thief.
Citation--also called documentation or referencing--solves this problem.
It allows you to quote or paraphrase what others say by simply giving them proper credit. In short, citation is a standard way of saying where you got your information.
In the text of your paper
(Called in-text citation)
At the end of the paper
(Called a bibliography, a reference list, or a works cited)
Quotation
(Using the author's exact words)
Paraphrase
(Putting the author's ideas into your own words)
In both cases, you must cite the author. Take a look at this Shakespeare poem as an example:
Photo source: Mario Klingemann.
Gratefully adapted with a CC license from Flickr.
Plagiarism means copying someone else’s ideas and making them appear your own. Some people do this on purpose; but most of the time it's entirely by accident and can be avoided.
Plagiarism consists of reproducing one of these without giving credit:
Words
Thoughts (e.g. innovations, arguments, interpretations)
Work (e.g. engineering, music, design, art, recipes)
Plagiarism is usually not black or white, but nuanced and grey instead. Imagine a rowboat. Drift one way and the water's warm; drift another and it gets cold. But figuring out precisely where the temperature changes is difficult.
The trick is navigation. Steering clear of plagiarism successfully depends on mastering (1) proper citation; and (2) distinguishing between your thoughts and those of others.
Avoid shark-infested waters . . .
Photo source: Adam Lizzi.
Gratefully adapted with a CC license from Flickr.
Following a citation format isn't fun, but at least it's usually straightforward. Follow the rules for the style you are using.
Common knowledge refers to facts so universally known you don't have to cite them. They are, however, rarely used in research papers. Here are a couple of examples.
The Earth orbits the Sun.
Paris is the capital of France.
Everyone knows Paris is the capital of France and, because it is a widely-accepted fact, you don't have to cite it. Take a look at this next sentence:
Parisians have the worst personal hygiene of any urban-dwellers in Europe.
Unlike the previous sentence, this one isn't common knowledge at all--in fact, many would disagree. And because it's not commonly understood to be true, you've got to cite it; otherwise, there's no way for the reader to find out where this sketchy statement comes from.
If ever in doubt, cite it.
Good note-taking will help you keep track of which author said what. One thing you can try is using coloured pencils (or font colours in Word) to distinguish between different authors, between quotation and paraphrase, and between others' information and your own.
When you begin analyzing others' views, however, establishing a boundary between a summary or paraphrase of what they say (which you'd need to cite) and a critique, commentary, or interpretation of what they say (which counts as your own thought and needs no citation) comes down in the end to your judgement. To help you make that decision, ask yourself whether the general content of the sentence is more focused on reporting what another author says (which you should cite), or on explaining something about that's author's ideas (which, if it's your explanation and not the author's, you need not cite).