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Avoiding Plagiarism for FCPS Faculty & Students: Help with Citing Sources

This LibGuide contains information and resources for faculty and students to learn about plagiarism and how to avoid it.

The Role of Citing Sources in Avoiding Plagiarism

It is important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:  1. To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas, 2. to avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors, and 3. to help your reader find and explore the sources you used in your paper/essay/presentation/speech.

Source: Minnesota State University Moorhead Plagiarism LibGuide

Understand Citation Styles

undefinedCitations are the way scholars acknowledge sources of the ideas in their work. Citations also tell your readers where, exactly the idea comes from in case they want to see for themselves.

Image Source: Grammarly Blog Why Do We Need Style Guides? 

Which citation style will you use?

There are many different ways to represent information about your source, which vary according to different academic disciplines. Make sure you know which style you are using, and stay consistent. Ask your teacher if you aren't sure!

You'll find more information on various style guides here: 

Use a Citation Manager

To keep track of and manage citations for larger research projects, we recommend using the official FCPS citation manager NoodleTools. Your School Librarian can help you with setting up your account and learning how to maximize the use of NoodleTools.

You may also find out more about the citation manager here:

Copyright & Ethical Use of Sources

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Image Source: "Plagiarism vs Copyright Infringement" by MLauba is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 

Learn how to search and use Creative Commons media and properly attribute it according to the license conditions

A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that they (the author) have created. Source: Wikipedia Creative Commons NonCommercial license

Here are some ways you can search for reusable images, videos, and music and properly give credit to the creator(s):

Need Help?: Ask an FCPS Media Specialist