What needs to be cited?
- Another person’s
words
- Another person’s
ideas
- Another person’s
organization
- Another person’s
judgments and unique opinions
- Visual information
- Information from a
company or organization rather than a single individual-- like a
government Web site
- Information like
lectures, personal interviews, emails, discussion groups
- Numerical
information like statistics, amounts, and dates that are not common
knowledge
- Bulleted lists which
appear in a source
What does not need
to be cited?
- Common Knowledge
- Information that appears in
various sources and is known to most educated people. For example, the
U.S. went to war in Iraq in 2003, or Columbus discovered America.
- Information that is well known
in a field of study. For example, most medical researchers believe
heredity plays a role in diabetes. As a rule of thumb, if you see the same
idea in three different sources, it is probably well known in the field
you are researching.
- Facts—information that is not
questioned and is found in many different references, like encyclopedias.
For example, the Civil War ended in 1864 and Robert E. Lee was a Southern
general.
- And your own ideas.
("Knowing")
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