Research Guide
Get the Most out of the Internet: (see separate document)
Citation/Bibliography Format:

SAMPLE BIBLIOGRAPHIC ENTRIES

Book with one author:
Almack, John C. Research and Thesis Writing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930.

Book with two authors:
McKissak, Patricia C. and Frederick Higgins. Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues. New York: Scholastic, 1994.

Book with more than two authors:
Busbey, Arthur B., et al. Rocks and Fossils. San Francisco: Time-Life Books, 1996.

Signed magazine article:
Fincher, Jack. "George Ferris' Wheel of Fortune" Smithsonian July 1983: 108-118.

Unsigned magazine article:
“Deadly by Nature.” World June 1998: 20-23.

Signed encyclopedia article:
Sapir, Edward. "Language." Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 1933.

Unsigned encyclopedia article:
“Northwest Passage.” World Book Encyclopedia, 1998.

Signed newspaper article:
Salemy, Shirley. “Plan Will Aid Children.” Des Moines Register Sept. 2, 1988, sec. M:1.

Unsigned newspaper article:
“Russia on the Verge.” New York Times Sept. 1, 1998, sec. A: 25.

Signed pamphlet:
Grayson, George W. The North American Free Trade Agreement. New York: Foreign Policy Association, Inc., 1993.

Unsigned pamphlet:
Consumer Information Catalogue. Pueblo, CO: Government Publications Office, 1997.

Video:
Island of the Giant Bears. Videocassette. National Geographic, 1995. 59 min.

Television or radio program:
“Crime and Punishment.” Nightline in Prime Time. ABC. WKOW, Madison, WI. Sept. 3, 1998.

Web site:
Limb, Peter. “Relationships between Labour & African Nationalist Movements in South Africa.”
[http://neal.ctstateu.edu/history/world_history/archives/limb-l.html], May 11, 1992.

Plagiarism and how to avoid it:
Here is a website which offers a clear definition of plagiarism:
http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html

Here is what the Upland School Handbook has to say about plagiarism:

“Plagiarism” comes from the Latin word for “kidnapping.” A plagiarist was originally a kidnapper,
which suggests how a writer feels about his work; it’s his brain child. Plagiarism now means copying or imitating someone else’s language or ideas and presenting them as one’s own. The only way to avoid plagiarism is to make specific acknowledgment every time we write something which is not completely original.

If, in something we write, we include someone else’s language (from a book, theme, lecture notes,
discussion, etc.), we must put all such language within quotation marks and indicate the source in a note. (“Language” includes even parts of sentences, distinctive phrasing, statistical tables, etc.) To omit the quotation marks is to attempt to pass off another’s work as ones own.

If we imitate or adapt someone else’s language or thought, we are paraphrasing; we are restating another’s thought in our own words. In such cases, we may omit the quotation marks. However, unless we specify in the text or note the source of the thought, we are plagiarizing. The problem can often be handled within our text by including such phrases as, “I agree with Einstein’s idea that...” or, “As I learned from Mr. Brown...” otherwise, paraphrased passages need to be documented just as direct quotes are. In general, it is better to say too much about our sources than too little. —Adapted from Honor System Regulations, Wesleyan University.

When you are doing research, it sometimes can be hard to see how to make use of information you’ve learned without using the original language. It’s hard to come up with an entirely new way to say something. A paraphrase may contain some of the original’s wording - but how much? This website from Indiana University Bloomington has some excellent examples, both of obvious plagiarism (whole passages copied exactly) and of less obvious plagiarism, where the student has changed some words but not the general phrasing, or when the student has kept the words but reordered the sentences. http://www.indiana.edu/~istd/examples.html. So it is important to know how to properly paraphrase. Here’s a good web page that shows examples of proper and improper paraphrasing: http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/plagdoc.html

So the key to avoiding plagiarism is a combination of paraphrasing and using quotation marks, as well as proper citation (see the citation section).

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this page last updated: 11-Apr-2008