Kinesiology

A citation is a reference to the source of an idea or piece of information. Your citation should allow anyone who sees your reference list to be able to find the original source. Typically, citations include information such as author, title, date, website URL, etc.Whenever you get information from a source, quote it, or base your ideas on another person's work, you must document the source you used in an accepted citation style.

• To show where you found your information
• To give credit to the author or creator whose ideas you are using
• To add credibility and support to your own argument
• To respect creators’ moral rights within the Canadian Copyright Act

If you don't cite, you commit plagiarism. According to Okanagan College's Academic Integrity policies, plagiarism occurs when a student  "submits or presents work of another person, in whole or part, as that of the student's own work." By committing plagiarism, you risk getting a zero on the assignment or the course and even suspension or dismissal from the college.

• You must provide a citation for any facts, ideas, or data which you took from another source.
• You also have to provide a citation for any images, graphs, maps, sound files, etc. unless you created them yourself
• The only time you do not need to cite is when the fact or idea is “common knowledge,” eg: William Shakespeare is the author of Hamlet.

There are two basic ways to cite in-text (in the body of your paper). You can use quotations to copy exact words or you can paraphrase and summarize ideas from the source. Learn more by clicking the links below:

• Using Quotations
• Paraphrasing