To avoid plagiarism -- that is, the theft of another writer's or speaker's words, ideas, or thoughts -- authors who use facts, opinions, and statements from outside sources (WHETHER IN DIRECT QUOTATIONS OR BY PARAPHRASING) must acknowledge them in references. Even when you do not quote or paraphrase, but you refer to the work of another (be it a movie, a journal or magazine article, or a book), that work must be properly credited to its source. STUDENTS WHO PLAGIARIZE WILL EARN A ZERO ON THE PAPER. It has been this instructor's experience that although students think they know the rules of referencing, they do not. Consequently, many students receive grades of 0 on their papers. You are strongly advised to use a style manual. Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertation is an excellent style manual. You would do well to use it both to look up the various referencing rules and to help you in learning them. Please keep in mind that while one reason for referencing is to give appropriate credit to the originator of the idea or words, a second reason for referencing is to point the reader to exactly where the idea or words may be found. This reader checks all references.

When referencing a movie, you must give the name of either the director or the producer (last name first), the name of the film (in italics or quotation marks or underlined), the studio which distributed the film, the year in which it was first released, and the approximate time into the movie that the referred-to scene appeared.

References may be:

1. Footnotes (or endnotes): a raised number next to and directly following the borrowed material and a corresponding number and explanation at the foot of the page (or on a page that follows the text of the paper). The first time a work is mentioned in a footnote (endnote), the entry should be in complete form. That is, it should include not only the author's/authors' full name/names (last name first and in the order listed on the work cited), the title of the work, and the specific reference (i.e., volume, if any, and page number) but the facts of publication as well. Once a work has been cited in full, subsequent references to it should be in abbreviated form, but page numbers must always be included.

B. Bibliographic citations: a parenthetical next to and directly following the borrowed material that identifies the work and page by reference to a bibliography. The bibliography, on a page that follows the text of the paper, is alphabetized by the last names of the (first) author of a work and lists the name(s) of author(s) (last name first), full title of work, place, publisher, date of publication, and page numbers when the item is part of a whole work -- a chapter in a book or an article in a periodical. One may identify the work inside the parenthetical citation by author and page or by number and page when the bibliography has been numbered. Dates need not be given within the parenthesis unless more than one work by that author(s) is being referenced in your paper.

Whichever citation format you choose to use, your citation must identify exactly where the material quoted or paraphrased can be found. You must also give citations for those people you interviewed (should you do so); these references must contain the full name of the interviewee (last name first), his/her exact job title, the name of the company for which s/he works, its location, the date of the interview and the person's telephone number.

1. Quotations -- Five or more words taken from another must be placed in quotation marks (or appropriate indentation) and must be referenced. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS REQUIREMENT. (Some students think that definitions do not need quotation marks -- this is false; they do.)

1. Direct quotations should correspond exactly with the originals in wording, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. (See d. below for an exception to this rule.)
2. Short quotations should be incorporated into the text of the paper and enclosed in quotation marks.
3. Longer (block) quotations -- two or more sentences which run to four or more typewritten lines -- should be set off from the text in single spacing and indented in its entirety five spaces from the left marginal line, with no quotation marks at beginning or end. Double space between the text and the block quotation.
4. Any omission of words, phrases, or even paragraphs in quoted matter is indicated by ellipsis points, which are period dots. There should be a space before each dot and a space also after the last dot if a word follows. Since ellipsis points stand for words omitted from the quotation itself, they are always placed within the quotation marks or block quotation.

EX: "What we require to be taught . . . is to be our own teachers."

II. Paraphrasing -- A full reference -- footnote, endnote, or bibliographic citation -- is also required next to and immediately following the borrowed material that you have either paraphrased or summarized in your own words. Facts and/or assertions taken from class lectures (or other sources) must be referenced. To reference class lecture material give the name of the professor (last name first), the number of the class, the semester in which the class was taken, the college where it was taken, and the date if you have it.

You may use any referencing style you wish as long as your use of it is consistent throughout the paper. As noted above, citations must include author(s) in the order in which they are listed in the work), title of book or article, publisher or journal name (as applicable), date, and page number(s). If you use endnotes or a bibliographic format be sure that the specific page number(s) of the quotation or paraphrase is (are) given. Please note that the American Psychological Association's referencing format is misapplied more frequently than other formats; students are advised against its use. The easiest, and currently most popular, referencing style is the bibliographic format, especially the version that references the bibliography by number and page.

With the exception of the textbook and the movie being used in the course for which you are writing the paper, all materials used must be supplied with your paper. You are expected to make Xerox copies of magazine, journal or newspaper articles (the entire article must be supplied even if you only reference one page of that article) and of pages in a book which contain referenced material. If you use material found on the Internet, you must reference it according to the directions given above and must add to that reference both the http://www address where it was found, the date that you downloaded it, and the page number of the downloaded material that you referenced. If the downloaded article does not have page numbers (most indicate "page one of three" and so forth), you must number them yourself. Again, you must attach to your paper a copy of the entire downloaded article when you submit the paper.

See your student handbook for CSUN's policy on plagiarism.

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