Engineering & Technology

Using someone else's work without citation is plagiarism and may have serious consequences, especially for college students.

Any time you incorporate someone else's ideas or words into your paper or presentation, you must cite them. These ideas may not only come from books and journal articles, but from conversations, images, multimedia, speeches, blogs, etc. They need to be cited for several reasons:

• to give credit to the authors or creators of those sources or ideas
• to allow your readers to find and benefit from the exact sources you used
• (in a college paper or project) to let your professor know how you arrived at your conclusions

For general guidance, see the ODU Libraries guide to citing sources (linked below). If you're unsure, ask your professor which style s/he prefers.