There are many good strategies for avoiding intentional and unintentional plagiarism, but it almost always comes down to making sure you have cited your sources. These citations are not just at the end of your essay. Your citations have to also be included throughout your essay in each sentence that includes words or ideas that you got from your research sources. The citations inside your sentences are called in-text citations. The citations at the end of your essay are called full citations.

In-Text Citations and Full Citations

To avoid plagiarism, it's necessary to follow citations rules so that you put an in-text citation at the end of every sentence where you quoted or paraphrased a source and so that you include a complete and accurate Works Cited or References page at the end of your paper.

Video: What Are In-Text Citations? (2 minutes 50 seconds)

Look at this article, "Transborder Realities: Its Effect on Bordertown Students Pursuing a Higher Education," and notice how many parenthetical in-text citations the author includes in the section called "Introduction: What is the Transborder Community Like?" Then, scroll down to page 50 of the article to view the full citation for each source cited in the article.

Sources

The content on this page was adapted from "The Basics of Citing to Avoid Plagiarism" by Palomar College Library, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0

Video: "What are In-text Citations?" by Imagine Easy Solutions