Education is not only a product of formal learning, but is also created from engagements with others and our own research. Life is a continuous learning experience where new ideas come from articles we read, lectures we hear, or conducting research on the Internet.
If one ever wishes to express these ideas in conjunction with thoughts he/she has developed than one must give credit to the creator of those original ideas. If no acknowledgment is given then the result is plagiarism.
In order to avoid plagiarism one must record where specific information was found. Even though there are various citation styles depending on the type of information researched, every citation requires the same parts: Author, Title, Title of Periodical (if available), Volume (if available), Page(s), and Date. To make it easy, before doing a research paper create an organizational template to copy down this information as research is gathered.
There are various styling formats for work citations. The most common ones are MLA style, APA style, Chicago Manual of Style, and CBE style. Ones field of research will often dictate what style is used. Most college research is cited in...