To avoid plagiarism, all students must learn to document sources properly using Footnotes, Endnotes, or Parenthetical References. Of the three ways to document sources, the simplest is using Parenthetical References. Check to see which type of documentation is preferred by your teacher. Most word processors have superscript, Footnote and Endnote capability. If you are required to use Foodnotes or Endnotes, it is well worth the effort to master this feature on the computer a few days before your paper is due.

If you use Parenthetical References you only need to list the sources cited in your Works Cited, References, or Bibliography section (hereafter referred to as Bibliography) at the end of your paper.

If you use Footnote references, you must have numerically superscripted Footnote references at the foot of the same page where your citations are located plus a Bibliography at the end.

If you use Endnote references, your citation within the text of your paper is the same as your Footnote citation, but you must list your Endnote references at the end of your paper in superscripted numerical order on a page entitled Endnotes. You must still add a Bibliography page after your Endnotes page.

Do not be tempted to get someone else to write your research paper, hand in the same essay to two or more different teachers, or purchase instant essays from the Web. Do not download information from CD-ROMs or someone else's original work off the Internet and directly incorporate such information into your essay without paraphrasing and acknowledging its source. Apart from being unethical and dishonest, your teacher probably knows you and your writing style too well for you to plagiarize successfully. What is more, a program now exists which is capable of detecting plagiarism. See Plagiarism.com

A page entitled Works Cited, References, or Bibliography at the end of your paper is an absolute MUST for any serious research paper.

For further information on this topic, check out Cut-and-Paste Plagiarism: Preventing, Detecting and Tracking Online Plagiarism, Plagiarism -- the Do's and Don'ts, and Plagiarism and Academic Honesty.

Last modified: 9 November 1999

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