Quotations and citations

Quotations and citations are a writer best friend. Most of the times things we write about come from ideas that we have been exposed to; very seldom we come up with our own ideas or concepts. Most of the time we grab other people’s ideas, assimilate them and sometimes make it our own and use it to the point where there is little to no distinction between what is ours or what we borrow from others. Which is fine, as it shows to others our level of culture. However, we need to be careful not to succumb to plagiarism. Plagiarism as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Plagiarism is considered as academic dishonesty in within Academia or Academic fraud. Offenders may face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination of employment according to the extent of their crime or the domain in which they are operating. One can fall into plagiarism on purpose or by omission. The best way to keep one from falling into the trap is, to always give credit to the source of our ideas through the use of quotations or citations.