Writing the Research Paper

Steps to the Research Process

Citing a source means that you are giving credit to the author. Whenever you quote, paraphrase, summarize or borrow information from another reference source, you are required to cite that source. Legally, if you fail to cite a source, you are committing plagiarism. Eastern Michigan University takes a dim view of plagiarism. EMU has published a policy on plagiarism. It is important you read from the Eastern Michigan University Conduct Code and Judicial Structure for Students and Student Organizations:

I.A.11. Academic dishonesty
1.Students are not to engage in any form of academic dishonesty including, but not limited to, plagiarism, alteration of records, substitution of another's work representing it as the student's own, and knowingly assisting another student in engaging in any such activity.
For purposes of this section, plagiarism is defined as the knowing use, without appropriate approval, of published materials, expressions, or works of another with intent to represent the material(s) as one's own.

By citing your sources, you are showing your instructor and others that you are honest and have integrity.When you cite your sources, you are telling your reader where to find the information, so if they want to read more about the topic they know what source it came from. The last page of your research paper is usually the bibliography. The bibliography is where you write down the sources you consulted. Here, you give full publication data about the source.

There are several citation styles you can use for your research paper. If your instructor does not tell you, ask what style your citations should be written in. The library can help you with the different style manuals. The library has also put them on the World Wide Web for your convenience. Take a look at http://www.emich.edu/library/help/citing.php