Why Cite?

The FANS Explanation:

• Find: Readers need to know where you have found your ideas and examples, and citations help them to locate your research.
• Avoid Plagiarism: When you acknowledge sources, you become less likely to accidentally copy a sentence, quote, or idea from someone else.
• Norms: Researchers and scholars cite in ALL of their writing. You are also a researcher and scholar as a college student.
• Support: Showing evidence that you have used more than your own ideas and have incorporated multiple sources into your writing proves that you did extensive research. Doing a sizeable amount of research will help you to create a thoughtful and informative paper, and adds to the credibility and strength of your paper. The result of your effort: you earn a good grade!