Source use or how to avoid plagiarism
"No sooner do we come into this world than bits of us start to drop off." -- Gustave Flaubert
Signal phrases to use with sources
For complete information on signal phrases, read your writing handbook.
All quotations should have a signal phrase which indicates who is speaking, their credentials, and additional information about where to locate the source. You should never just "dump" your quotation in a paragraph without proper integration. Here is an example of a correctly signaled quotation:
In his Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams, the famed British novelist, writes, "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move" (insert page number here).
MLA formatting requires parenthetical citation: provide the author's last name and a page number (where you retrieved information) at the end of the sentence surrounded by parentheses: (Adams 23). If the author's last name has been mentioned in the signal phrase, just provide a page number in parentheses: (23).
Full information about Adams' book (publication information, copyright, etc) should be listed on a separate MLA-formatted works cited page (see your MLA handbook).
Please go to Diana Hacker's website for much more extensive MLA source use information.
Academic dishonesty
Academic dishonesty is an enormous problem on college campuses, draining away the value of the educational experience for all of us. Please read the "Academic Dishonesty" statement included on your syllabus and this description if you have any worries about your source use.