How can I be sure I am following the rules?
1) Take good reference notes. Develop the habit of creating a citation for every source you read, even for references you don't think you will use. You never know when something may prove useful. If you are working on the computer, it becomes a matter of filling out a form and pasting the citation into your paper as you move through your research.
There are good online citation systems that make it easy to create formal citations:
It helps to be able to work with multiple windows open on the screen at the same time. One for the paper (word document), one for the Citation Wizard, and one for the page you are researching. At this point the paper is at the note taking stage. It is easy to remove unnecessary citations during the final draft of a paper. It is not easy to find citations you forgot to get when you were looking the first time.
2) Use a plagiarism check tool on your paper before handing it in. There are many online tools for checking your paper for plagiarism, accidental or intentional. The best require paid subscriptions or software purchase. Consider these plagiarism checkers :
- Turnitin.com (Fee based. Currently the most popular system.)
- Glatt Plagiarism Services (Fee based.)
- MyDropBox.com (Fee based.)
- Self-Detection Test (Free!)
- JPlag (Free! Detects software code plagiarism. )
- The Plagiarism Resource Site (Free! Windows and Linux based software.)
