Citing Sources

Any text copied and pasted from the Internet should be rewritten in your own words AND cited appropriately. A website is copyrighted as soon as it is posted to the Internet.

WHAT IS THE FAIR USE POLICY?

"Fair Use" is a legal term that gives exculsive rights of articles, photographs, graphics, videos and music to the creator of the work. Copyrighted works do no have to bear the copyright symbol if it was created after March 1, 1989.

The "FAIR USE POLICY" provides that educators and students may use copyrighted work, including reproduction "for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching (including multiple for classroom use), scholarship, or research".

EXAMPLES:

You are looking for pictures on the Internet for a PowerPoint project. A site you have accessed has pictures that you may purchase. You decide to just save the picture and use it anyway without purchasing it. THIS IS CONSIDERED UNFAIR USE.

You are still looking for pictures for your project. You find a site that says you may use any of the pictures, if the source is cited. You save and use the pictures. THIS IS CONSIDERED TO BE FAIR USE.

HOW MUCH CAN BE USED?

Any other use of text, images, or music/video is prohibited unless the owner grants permission. Unlimited use of sites marked free is acceptable but the source should still be cited.

TIP: The basic rule is that 10% of a work may be used in a school setting as long as the source is cited.

General Structure for Citing Internet Sources:
Author. Title of item. [Online] Available: http://address, date of document or download.

The Slate Citation Machine is a site that is very helpful in citing sources. You plug in the information and it puts everything in the right order and place. All that is left to do is copy and paste it into your document. Check it out!!