Knowing What You Must Acknowledge
As a general rule, material taken from specific outside sources—whether ideas, texts,
images, or sounds—should be cited and documented. But there are some exceptions.
If in doubt, err on the safe side and include a citation.
INFORMATION THAT DOES NOT NEED TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED
• Information that is “common knowledge.” Uncontroversial information (“People today
get most of their news and information from the internet”), well-known historical
• Information well known to your audience. Keep in mind that what is common
knowledge varies depending on your audience. While an audience of pulmonary
• Information from well-known, easily accessible documents. You do not need to include
the specific location where you accessed texts that are available from a variety of
public sources and are widely familiar, such as the United States Constitution.
• Your own work. If you’ve gathered data, come up with an idea, or generated a text
INFORMATION THAT MUST BE ACKNOWLEDGED
• Direct quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. Exact wording should always be
enclosed in quotation marks and cited. And always cite specific ideas taken from
another source, even when you present them using your own words.
• Any materials that you did not create yourself—including tables, charts, images, and
audio or video segments. Even if you create a table or chart yourself, if it presents
information from an outside source, that’s someone else’s work that needs to be
acknowledged.