Using Sources & Avoiding Plagiarism: Home

Introduction

Using sources fairly and well is a hallmark of academic writing. Nearly all academic and intellectual writers put sources to new use in the context of their own reports, analyses, and arguments. Typically, academic writers take into account previous findings, prior claims, and earlier interpretations and data regarding their object of study. By doing so, they acknowledge previous research in order to document others' information and ideas which they will build upon, extrapolate from, take exception to, or refute in their own writing.

This guide offers basic but necessary information for citing others’ work effectively and then crediting that work ethically. Citation guidelines vary by discipline, but every member of the College community avoids plagiarism. The guide gives you clear information about how to do so. For additional information about using sources effectively, please consult The Davidson Writer website.

Image Attribution
The majority of the images and illustration used from this guide are in the public domain. They come from plate illustrations from Diderot's Encyclopedie; ou Dictionnaire raisonne des sciences des arts et des metiers (digitized via the ARTFL Project). The Smith Rare Book Room has a first edition of this famous French work.