You are all working on the student helpline to advise your peers on using APA format and avoiding plagiarism. Discuss what to tell the following students:

Student A
I’m doing a paper on breast cancer. I can’t explain breast cancer very well, but I found a web site that is very clear. Can I just cut and paste it into my paper? What if I put it in the references?

Student B
I found a great description of global warming. I changed some words in it. Can I just put it in my paper with a citation and reference? Should I use quotation marks?

Student C
There’s this whole page of stuff I found on endangered species. I want to put it in my report, but don’t want to have a whole page in quotation marks. What should I do?

Student D
I just got my paper back from my teacher saying I didn’t cite my source, but right on my reference page I had:

Mills, E., L., J. Leach, H., J. Carlton, T., and C. Secor, L. 1994. Exotic species and the integrity of the Great Lakes: Lessons from the past. BioScience 44: 666-676.

Isn’t this a citation? If not, what would a citation be like?

Student E
There’s a paragraph about genetic engineering that is copied on about 20 sites on the Internet. Can’t I just copy it too? I’ll cite it.