Anything that is not born of your own thoughts, words, ideas, and labor. In other words, you must cite other peoples':
NoodleTools FAQs
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) is commonly used in the social sciences. It provides two different format styles, one for students and one for professionals. Confirm which style you should use with your instructor.
Use your APA manual or the links below to learn more about APA requirements.
- This link leads to the official APA website.
- This link also leads to the official APA website.
- This link leads to the Purdue OWL website.
- This link leads to the WLU government guide.
The Modern Language Association (MLA) Handbook is commonly used in the humanities. It is particularly popular for English courses, but confirm with your instructor before using it.
Use your MLA manual or the links below to learn more about MLA requirements.
- This link leads to the official MLA website.
- This link also leads to the official MLA website.
- This link leads to the Purdue OWL website.
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (called Turabian style) is a modified form of the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) and is commonly used for student work in the humanities. Confirm with your instructor before using it.
Use your Turabian manual or the links below to learn more about Turabian requirements.
- This link leads to the official Turabian website.
- This link also leads to the official Turabian website.
Descriptive: Annotation summarizes the content (e.g., the main idea, content, and plot) and explains its value to your research. When relevant to your research, concisely include the following information:
What is the purpose of this source? Is the author's intention to persuade, to inform, to analyze, to inform, or to argue for a point-of-view?
How did it help you understand your topic? How did you use it? Did its bibliography lead you to new sources?
Critical: Annotation includes a description (see above), then evaluates the quality of your source related to others and the value of its information to your research.
What is missing or questionable?
Is there evidence of bias or distortion?
Are there errors or weaknesses?
How does this source fit with or compare to other sources used?
Germanna Community College Sample MLA Annotated Bibliography (NOTE: sample annotations are approximately 125 words each.)
Not sure what the difference is between paraphrasing, summarizing and quoting?
Paraphrasing: "Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly." from Purdue Owl
Summarizing: A summary is "much shorter that the original source. If your aim is to summarize a long passage, look for the author's most important ideas." from The Curious Writer
Quoting: A quote contains the exact words from a source. Don't forget to use quotation marks and cite the source.
If you need further help, try these websites:
In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.
