How to Quote and Cite Sources Without Plagiarizing

Use a direct quotation when the exact wording is the point: a definition, a striking phrase, a disputed claim or language you will analyse. Paraphrase when you need a specific idea in your own words and structure. Summarise when you need the main point of a longer passage or a whole source.

All three require a citation. The difference is only in how much of the source's own wording you keep.

A correct quotation has four parts.

• The exact words of the source, copied accurately, including spelling and punctuation.

• Quotation marks around shorter quotations, or block formatting for long ones as your style guide defines them.

• A citation immediately after the quotation, with a page, paragraph or timestamp locator where your style requires it.

• Square brackets for any word you add or change, and an ellipsis for words you leave out, without changing the meaning.

Rewording a source does not make its ideas yours. A paraphrase should be genuinely rewritten — new sentence structure and your own vocabulary — and it still needs an in-text citation that points to the source.

A reliable method is to read the passage, close it, write the idea from memory in your own way, and then compare your version with the original to make sure you have not kept its structure or distinctive phrases. Our paraphrasing guide walks through this in more detail.

When in doubt, cite. These always need attribution:

• Direct quotations, however short, when the wording is distinctive.

• Paraphrased or summarised ideas, arguments, theories and findings.

• Statistics, data, figures, tables and images you did not create.

• Specific facts that are not common knowledge in your field.

• Your own previously submitted or published work.

• Content generated by AI tools, where your course or style guide requires it.

APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard all link an in-text citation to a full entry in a reference list or bibliography. Use the style your course or journal requires and apply it consistently: the same author-date or numbering pattern throughout, and a reference entry for every in-text citation.

A citation manager such as Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote helps you store source details while you research, which prevents the most common cause of accidental plagiarism — notes that lost track of where an idea came from.

A similarity check matches text against sources. A correctly quoted and cited passage is still identical to its source, so it will often appear as a match. That is not a problem — it shows that the borrowed wording is visible and attributed.

When you review a report, check that each highlighted quotation has quotation marks and a citation. Focus your effort on matches that have neither, and on paraphrases that follow the source too closely. If your overall score is high, follow these steps for a high similarity score.