Long Night Against Procrastination

When you write at the college level, you often need to integrate material from published sources into your own writing. This means you need to be careful not to plagiarize: “to use and pass off (the ideas or writings of another) as one’s own” (American Heritage Dictionary). 

Quotations - If you use an author's specific word or words, you must place those words within quotation marks and you must credit the source. 

Information and Ideas - Even if you use your own words, if you obtained the information or ideas you are presenting from a source, you must document the source. 

Common Knowledge - You do not need to cite a source for material considered common knowledge: 

• General common knowledge is factual information considered to be in the public domain, such as birth and death dates of well-known figures, and generally accepted dates of military, political, literary, and other historical events. 

• Field-specific common knowledge is “common” only within a particular field or specialty.  

If in doubt, be cautious and cite the source. 

The way that you credit your source depends on the documentation system you’re using. If you're not sure which documentation system to use, ask the course instructor who assigned your paper.