All writers must cite their sources in order to give original authors credit for their ideas and phrasing. Citing a source means you show that you took information like words, ideas, images, and statistics from a particular location, such as a book, website, or database article. If you were to portray someone else's material as your own, you’d be committing plagiarism, which is a serious offense — in school and elsewhere, such as the music industry. To avoid plagiarism, simply cite your sources within your paper or presentation, and include the full source information in a works cited page at the end of the paper or presentation. At SMHS, students should follow Modern Language Association guidelines and use NoodleTools for creating in-text and works cited citations.
Students should know that SMHS teachers use Turnitin when they evaluate and grade research papers. Turnitin is a plagiarism detection service which scans student work and compares it to writing found in books, periodicals, and web sources, as well as student papers previously submitted to Turnitin. The Turnitin service generates reports which contain a similarity score. These scores show how closely a paper matches other information sources.