Plagiarism occurs when a person uses the concepts and thoughts taken directly from other sources without crediting them. It can be detected by someone who has expertise in a certain field even if it is covered by paraphrasing or changing up the concept. To credit the sources properly, one should always explore the field of their interest to see if their ideas are new, and if not, properly acknowledge borrowing data from other sources. Aside from this, one should use different wording for the parts taken from other sources and elaborate on them to develop a thought and add new information to it. If paraphrasing does not seem reasonable, a direct quote can be used.
What Does MLA Stand For? Why Is It Important to Cite Your Sources?
MLA is an abbreviation for Modern Language Association, an organization which has published eight editions of their MLA Handbook which advises authors to use certain standards for their academic works (MLA Formatting Style and Guide). Referencing sources is important because, although sometimes a text is hard to read because of all the in-text citations, these references give substantial information to the reader. The first reason why citations are important concerns the information which a reference provides. From citations, readers can see if the information stated as a fact has research to support it. Moreover, the publication date of a paper gives a reader an idea of the relevance of provided information or show the development of some concept through the years. Another reason is the conscientiousness of the author: references show author’s integrity in the academic community and their respect for colleagues’ works. An academic paper is less convincing if it has no citations, and the readers have no option but to believe the results of research provided by the author.
References
“MLA Formatting and Style Guide.” The Purdue OWL, Purdue U Writing Lab. Web.