If it’s done properly, no one mentions it at all.
If it’s not done properly, there are big red marks all over your paper.
If it’s not done at all, you get a Big, Fat Zero, or they threaten to expel you.
Citations: the bane of an academic writer’s existence.
Deliberate plagiarism is not all that common, particularly in our society where computers link everyone to everything, and plagiarism is easily discovered. However, even if you have not copied-and-pasted The World Authority’s textbook into your writing, improper citation can get you in serious trouble.
There are two points against plagiarism: 1) those who plagiarise don’t learn anything, which defeats the purpose of academic writing, and 2) the person who actually did the writing doesn’t get any of the credit. People who put time and effort into transferring their knowledge to print get, understandably, possessive of their work. Imagine doing something wonderful for a friend – cooking a great dinner from scratch, washing their car, buying them a present – and having someone else take all the kudos…
Copyrights are automatic: if people have created something, they do not have to apply for special permission to keep all the credit to themselves. Even works with expired copyrights need to be cited. Just because something doesn’t have the copyright symbol (©) on it, doesn’t mean it’s available for free usage. Anything made by anyone other than yourself must be cited.
In your work, quotes must, obviously, be put in quotation marks, or somehow separated from your own words. Lengthier quotes (usually those over 40 words) are written as a separate paragraph, and are given wider margins than the regular text. After the quotes are physically identified as being not-of-your-own-writing, you must give credit to the person or people who actually did the writing.
There are many different formats for citations and bibliographies; specifics are available on the internet, or from your institution. Regardless of format, each will include the author, the title of the work, the publisher, and the date of publication. Some will include further details, such as page numbers or the city of publication. Websites also have to be cited, as the authors of websites also deserve credit for their work.
So, as you stay up yet another hour later, gritting your teeth and adding information which strikes you as pointless, consider this: your work may someday be cited by some other poor individual in a similar situation, and you can sit back and enjoy the revenge.
