Against Plagiarism

General Guidelines

Journalism style is different from academic style

If you were using that same copied text in a newspaper or magazine story, you would not use the academic citation style. However, you would still need to make it clear that someone else wrote the words.

Here's one example:

Mindy McAdams, now a professor at the University of Florida, wrote about this in 1993. "In McLuhan's view, roads and vehicles, money, and weapons are media, just as movies, books, and radio are," McAdams wrote. "Media act as extensions of the human body, and electric media are extensions of the human nervous system."

You will notice that this example makes it clear that you did not interview the person quoted. That's good, because it's honest.

Please note that the example above is not suitable for use in a graduate school paper! In grad school, you are expected to use citations that follow one of the recognized styles for academic writing.