A standardized way to cite sources is called a style. There are numerous styles. The UNT Library page, Citations & Styles Guides includes links to tutorials, books, and other resources to help you understand how to cite materials and write successfully in an academic environment. 

There are many other online sites that provide guidance on the use of styles. Two of the best are The Purdue Online Writing Lab and EasyBib.

The most frequently used styles used for scholarly writing are:

• APA (Sciences)
• MLA (Humanities)
• Chicago/Turabian (Humanities)

RefWorks is a tool that allows you to create a database of citations for academic and personal use.

RefWorks allows you to add references from databases, the UNT library catalog, websites and more. Then you can generate reference lists for your papers and projects in the citation style of your choice.

Visit the RefWorks guide to create your account and start adding references to your own database.

Plagiarism is the use or imitation of another writer's words or ideas without acknowledging the original author. Plagiarism makes it appear as if the essay's ideas are solely yours. It is a form of dishonesty that violates UNT policy and that has serious consequences for any person who attempts to plagiarize.

The way to keep clear of plagiarism is to cite the source, whether you are using a direct quotation or a paraphrase of the source's language. The citation should occur at the point in your text where the other author's ideas appear and at the end of your essay, where you provide a list of all the sources that you used in the text.