if you write something, cite something
If You Write Something, Cite Something “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” ― William Shakespeare If you write it, cite it. If there is one thing that differentiates academic writing from other forms of writing (besides a general and unfortunate impenetrability…), it is the requirement to cite sources. In short, if you say something and it is not your original thought, then you need to cite it. If it is your original thought, but someone else thought of it first, you still need to cite it. Not citing something someone else did is a form of plagiarism, namely the theft of an idea (which is, in part, why a literature review is so important). To be ethical and have integrity, you must cite sources. Citing is also supporting evidence for your research and, when done well, clearly offsets what are your original thoughts. Unfortunately, the art of citing seems to be falling to the wayside in “peer-reviewed” literature. Peer-review has neve...