Why Cite?
Citation and the lack thereof, plagiarism is the academic version of copyright. Plagiarism occurs when you borrow another's words (or ideas) and do not acknowledge that you have done so. In this culture, we consider our words and ideas intellectual property; like a car or any other possession, we believe our words belong to us and cannot be used without our permission. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to cite your sources - both within the body of your paper and in a bibliography of sources you used at the end of your paper.
You must cite:
When in doubt, be safe and cite your source!
Below, you will find the ASCE manual, which is generally used for academic writing in the engineering sciences.
ASCE uses the author-date method for in-text references, whereby the citation reads as the last names of the authors, then the year (e.g., Smith 2004, or Smith and Jones 2004). A References section must be included that lists all references alphabetically by last name of the first author. References must be published works only. Exceptions to this rule are theses, dissertations, and “forthcoming” articles, all of which are allowed in the References list. References cited in text that are not found in the reference list will be deleted but queried by the copyeditor. Likewise, all references included in the References section must be cited in the text.
The Chicago Manual of Style Notes/Bibliography system is used by scholars in history, arts, and humanities.
This style consists of two parts: