The Writing Center at Washington University

You may use other writers' ideas as long as your readers understand that these ideas are not yours. In-text citations will clear up any misconceptions about paraphrased passages or direct quotations, giving other authors credit for their contributions to your paper. For example, here are a few sentences from an article by Grahame Shane titled "Los Angeles Mutant Malls," on page 102 of a journal called SITES , volume 25:

Neil Denari created an elevated cultural mall, celebrating the machine and, in his own phrase, the "mechanicool." Denari articulated his mall as an object against its surroundings; it made mechanical connections via escalators linking specific communities on both sides of the freeway.

If you were going to paraphrase Shane's sentences and use them in a paper of your own, you might say:

Architect Neil Denari designed a mall to span a Los Angeles freeway and connect distinct urban spaces on either side by means of escalators. Instead of blending into the landscape, the mall would hold itself aloof, accessible only through technology (Shane 102).

Even though Shane's idea is now in your own words, you must give him credit in an in-text citation. Not citing the source of a paraphrased passage constitutes plagiarism. The citation above is given according to the MLA style, with the author's name in parentheses along with the number of the page where this idea appears. The author's last name will refer readers to a "Works Cited" page at the end of your paper and to more information about the article.

Using a phrase from the article--or a part of a sentence or even a key term--without quoting and citing your source would also be plagiarism.

Plagiarism:

Architect Neil Denari envisions his mall as an object against its surroundings.

Here, that part of the sentence taken directly from teh original source (shown in italics) must be placed in quotation marks and given an in-text citation.

Acceptable:

According to Graham Shane, architect Neil Denari "articulated his mall as an object against its surroundings" (102).

Since the original author is cited in a phrase introducing the quotation, you need to give only the page numeral in parentheses.

Be equally careful to give credit for a specific term you decide to use.

Plagiarism:

Today's architects take charge of urban space, triumph over it through technology, in fact--in bold designs that we might term "mechanicool."

Here, Denari's term "mechanicool" is used without a citation--that's plagiarism.

Acceptable:

Today's architects take charge of urban space, triumph over it through technology, in fact--in bold designs that architect Neil Denari has termed "mechanicool" (Shane 102).