Plagiarism Prevention and Academic Integrity Resources: Credit Your Sources: Citations

Common Knowledge
e.g., The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

The thirteen colonies formed the United States of America.

The capital of Wisconsin is Madison.

Your Own Opinions & Ideas

You need to give credit to sources for several reasons:

• To let your readers know how your views, agree with, disagree with, or modify the views of published experts in the field.

• By citing your sources, you are providing your reader with additional information--such as books, articles, and websites--on the topic you are writing about.

• By listing the author of a quotation and providing a page number, you're telling the reader, If you don't believe that this person really wrote this, you can look it up for yourself.'

• It's the honest thing to do.