How to Study

Document Your Sources
To avoid plagiarism, you must document the source when you put
any of the following in your paper:
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Quotations taken from a published source. 
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Someone else’s theories or ideas. 
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Someone else’s sentences, phrases, or special expressions. 
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Facts, figures, and research data compiled by someone else. 
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Graphs, pictures, and charts designed by someone else. 
How to Study
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There are some exceptions. You don’t need to document the source
of a fact, theory, or expression that is common knowledge. And you
also do not need a source note when you use a phrase or expression
for which there is no known author.
To judge whether a statement needs a source note, ask yourself
whether readers would otherwise think that you had come up with
the information or idea all by yourself. If the answer is yes, you need
a source note. If you’re in doubt, include a source note anyway.
Footnotes
For many years, the preferred way to credit sources was the 
footnote. Two other forms of documentation, endnotes and paren-
thetical notes, are popular now as well.
A footnote is a source note that appears at the bottom of a page 
of text. You put a raised (superscript) number at the end of the 
statement or fact you need to document, which tells your readers 
to look at the bottom of the page for a note about the source of the
data.
What goes in a footnote? The same information that’s in the bibliog-
raphy listing. And the exact page number the information appears on.
In front of that source note, you put the same superscript number as
you put next to the statement or fact in your text.
There is no limit to the number of footnotes you may have in 
your paper. Number each footnote consecutively, starting with the
number 1. For every footnote “flag” in your paper, be sure there is 
a corresponding source note at the bottom of the page.
Like bibliography listings, different authorities cite different rules 
for setting up footnotes. Ask your teacher whose rules you are to 
follow.
Chapter 7 
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How to Write Terrific Papers
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If your teacher doesn’t have a preference, you might as well 
use the MLA rules, which I use as well. Also, be sure to refer to
Improve Your Writing for a more in-depth examination of source 
documentation.
(The MLA guidelines are used primarily for papers in the arts and
humanities. If you are doing a paper for a physical or social science
class, check with your teacher or professor as to which style you 
are to follow. Specific— and different—style sheets are used in 
biology, chemistry, math, physics, engineering, psychology, and 
so forth.)