Write & Cite

There are many different styles of citation - always check with your instructor for the name of the style you should use. For help with creating your citations correctly, see the Library's Citation Styles guide.

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Selected books on academic writing

Academic Writing Basics
"Designed specifically for Kwantlen Polytechnic University students, this Pressbook offers interactive activities and strategies for developing academic writing skills. Learners have the opportunity to review key parts of the writing process from interpreting their assignment instructions, organizing their ideas, drafting their writing, and revising their work".
How to Write Better Essays
This indispensable guide takes students through each step of the essay writing process, enabling them to tackle written assignments with confidence. Students will develop their ability to analyse complex concepts, evaluate and critically engage with arguments, communicate their ideas clearly and concisely and generate more ideas of their own. Chapters are short and succinct and cover topics such as reading purposefully, note-taking, essay writing in exams and avoiding plagiarism.
The Quick Fix Guide to Academic Writing: How to Avoid Big Mistakes and Small Errors
Whether you're writing a paper, essay, assignment, or dissertation, this short and punchy book helps you improve your writing skills through minimal effort. Providing you with a quick set of writing rules to follow, this tried and tested guide uses a unique and easy to follow grid-based system. Packed with advice on understanding (big and little) common errors made in academic writing, it helps you identify patterns in your own writing and demonstrates how to reshape or re-evaluate them - and raise your writing game in any academic context.
Writing Effective Course Assignments : A Guide to Non-Degree and Undergraduate Student
In most colleges and universities, lecturers provide to students broad questions to answer in the form of essays, either in group or individual assignments. How should they turn the broad assignment questions provided to them by their lecturers into specific researchable topics for essays? How should they handle literature in order to obtain valuable information to answer the provided question? How should they construct an informed and convincing argument using the collected information as evidence? This book concerns these and other related questions. With its clear illustrations, the book is designed to be a self-study guide and to offer solutions to many struggling students in colleges and universities.

More books on academic writing

When writing a research paper, you must always cite any sources that you have consulted. You must acknowledge when you are using the ideas, information, arguments, phrases or any other intellectual or creative output by another person. Not to do so is referred to as plagiarism. Any form of cheating is a serious offense that comes with disciplinary consequences: see KPU's Policy ST2, entitled Student Academic Integrity Policy. The related Procedures for Dealing with Academic Integrity Violations offers definitions of cheating and plagiarism.

We cite:

to distinguish previous from new thought
to give credit to the person whose ideas you used
to respect intellectual property
to help a reader locate the source(s) you used
to show that you have investigated your topic well
to avoid plagiarism

Find out what it is and simple ways to avoid it!

Common examples of plagiarism:

- Copying sentences, paragraphs, data or visuals without properly citing their source
- Quoting material without proper use of quotation marks (even if otherwise cited appropriately)
- Paraphrasing or summarizing information from a source without proper acknowledgement;
- Paying someone for writing the assignment
- Listing a source in the bibliography/reference list that was not cited in the assignment

How do I avoid plagiarism?

Remember: You MUST provide an in-text citation and an entry in the Works Cited or list of References for ALL of the examples of quoting paraphrasing, or summarizing from other sources.

Find out more about Plagiarism and academic honesty.

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations in which each citation is followed by a brief summary of the item. This summary is intended to explain, describe or evaluate the publication. It should inform the reader as to the relevancy, accuracy, and quality of the item. Why did you choose this item? What has it added to your understanding of the issue?

The type of annotation you write is determined by your assignment and guidelines from your instructor and citations should conform to the appropriate citation style.

If you have questions about how to write an annotated bibliography, check out some of these resources:

UBC - "How to write an annotated bibliography"
UC Santa Cruz - "Write an annotated bibliography" (describes difference between this and an abstract)
University of Toronto - "How to write an annotated bibliography" (gives a handy list of verbs to use)

KPU Library

Asian Studies

eBooks

Write & Cite

Images--How to Find, Use and Cite