Blog Post #8 - Integrating and Documenting Sources (Ch. 7)

Citing is sort of like a chore that we are all familiar with doing. We have been groomed from a young age as to how to do it, but sometimes we are just not doing it the correct way. We can have all the good intentions in the world when it comes to documenting our sources, but unfortunately, in this situation intentions are not what count. In the chapter “Integrating and Documenting Sources”, we see that there is so much more to citing our sources than what most of us were taught in middle school and high school. We all sat through our English teachers’ speeches on why plagiarizing is wrong and can get you in detention, with a zero on your paper. What we did not hear is that plagiarizing can happen easily, without any awareness of it. I believe most people know that leaving out the citation for a source on a Bibliography or even after a direct quote would be plagiarism. Though, I do not think that people know the other ways plagiarism can occur. In fact, plagiarism is done when a person does not alter the wording of a source to a satisfactory amount. I think understanding how to properly cite your sources can be a little complicated and a bit confusing, but it is absolutely crucial to success at the college level. You see, at Florida State University I have heard it said many times that plagiarism is grounds for expulsion. No one wants that to happen so it is important that we all do our best to avoid intentional, as well as unintentional plagiarism.