MUS 1021: Introduction to Music

A very basic definition of plagiarism is to take someone else's work or ideas and pass them off as your own. Plagiarism can be intentional (like buying a paper from someone else or purposefully using another person’s ideas without giving them credit) or unintentional (accidentally forgetting that an idea in your notes isn’t your own and not citing it when you include it in a paper or project). It’s important to take detailed notes so you’ll always remember when and where to give credit to your sources!

By citing the sources you use for your research, you’ll be accomplishing three things:

• You’ll avoid plagiarizing and give proper credit to your sources, thereby demonstrating academic integrity.

• You’ll demonstrate the scope of your research and establish your credibility on your topic.

• You’ll provide your reader with a trail to follow to locate the sources you used so they can read more about your topic.

Always cite:

• Direct quotes

• Paraphrases

• Musical examples

• Pictures

• Charts

• Graphs

• Consult your instructor about other items that they’ll want you to cite!

Use a footnote to provide information within the body of your text. In addition to details about the author(s), title, and publication for a source, a footnote will also include the exact page number of the source where the information you're citing appears. Footnotes are preceded by a number that increases sequentially throughout your paper (and they don't start over with number 1 on each new page!). Bibliography entries appear in a list at the end of your paper and are alphabetized by the first letter of the first (or only) author's last name.

To insert a footnote:

• First, put your cursor after the period of the sentence where you want the footnote to appear

• Then, in Google Docs: “Insert” dropdown menu > “Insert Footnote”

• Or, in MS Word:

  • On a PC: “References” tab > “Insert Footnote”

  • On a Mac: “References” tab on the MS Word  ribbon > “Insert Footnote” OR “Insert” dropdown menu on the menu at the top of the screen > choose “Footnote” from the menu and leave all the settings as they are

The Chicago Manual of Style includes examples of how to format both footnotes and bibliography entries for many different types of sources. You can search for the type of source you'd like to cite by entering keywords into the search box at the top of the page, or you can access a quick guide to the most common types of sources through the homepage.

First, click here:

Then, click here:

The Chicago Manual of Style and the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) include great examples for citing books, articles, and more. But they don't all have examples for citing every type of music-related resource you might want to use for your research. For those tricky-to-cite materials, this guide to Chicago Style citations may come in handy:

• Many databases (and even the Libraries catalog) include a “Cite This” button, but these automatic citation generators often make mistakes. Be sure to double-check the formatting of the citations they create using the citation resources linked above!

• If you’re using a reference management program like Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley to keep track of your sources and create citations, double-check the formatting – these programs often make formatting mistakes when generating citations.

• If you have questions about citations or need help, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Jessica at jabbazio@umn.eduj!