Grade by Grade
D. Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts · Writing with Purpose: Research, Essays, Media and Publishing

Academic Honesty, Copyright and MLA Citation

D1.3 D2.1About 75 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can explain what academic honesty means and recognize the different forms of plagiarism, including misuse of AI tools.
  • I can check copyright and licences (including Creative Commons) before I reuse someone's content.
  • I can write MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries for common kinds of sources.
  • I can integrate quotations smoothly, including block quotations, and cite knowledge shared by people, including Elders and Knowledge Keepers, respectfully.

Words to know

academic honesty
Doing and presenting your own work truthfully, and giving credit for everything that comes from others.
plagiarism
Presenting someone else's words, ideas or work as your own, on purpose or by accident.
common knowledge
Facts that most people know and that appear in many sources, such as Ottawa is Canada's capital. Usually doesn't need a citation.
copyright
The legal right of creators to control how their work is copied and shared. In Canada it generally lasts for the creator's life plus 70 years.
fair dealing
A part of Canada's Copyright Act that allows limited, fair use of others' work for purposes such as research, private study, education, parody, satire, criticism, review and news reporting.
Creative Commons
Free licences creators use to let others reuse their work under conditions, such as giving credit (BY) or not using it commercially (NC).
container
In MLA style, the larger thing a source is part of, such as a website, a magazine, a book of stories or a streaming service.
hanging indent
A format where the first line of an entry starts at the margin and the following lines are indented.

Remember from Grade 8

In Grade 8 you wrote in-text citations like (Lee 14) and a Works Cited list in MLA style, and you learned about copyright, fair dealing and Creative Commons.

Grade 9 makes this a habit you can be held to. High schools have academic honesty policies, and Ontario's assessment policy for schools, Growing Success, expects students to do their own work and expects schools to treat cheating and plagiarism seriously. This lesson covers the forms of plagiarism, more MLA cases (no author, two or more authors, videos, interviews, block quotations, AI tools) and how to check copyright before you publish.

What counts as plagiarism?

  • Copying words without quotation marks, even with a citation.
  • Patchwriting: swapping synonyms into a source's sentence.
  • Using ideas, data or images without a citation, even if you put them in your own words.
  • Submitting someone else's work, bought, borrowed or shared, as your own.
  • Reusing your own old assignment for a new one without your teacher's permission.
  • Using AI tools in ways your teacher hasn't allowed, or presenting AI-generated text as your own writing.
  • Fabricating: making up a quotation, a statistic or a source.

Accidental plagiarism is still plagiarism, which is why the note habits from the last lesson matter. Academic honesty is not only about avoiding trouble: it's about respect for other creators, and it lets your reader check and trust your evidence.

Do I need to cite this?Did I use someone else's words, ideas,data, images, music or video?yesnoNo citation(your own work)Is it common knowledge that mostpeople know and many sources state?yesUsually nocitationno / not sureCITE IT.Exact words? Add quotation marks too.Images, music, video: also check copyrightand the licence before you publish.
When in doubt, cite. "Common knowledge" means facts like Ottawa is Canada's capital, not a statistic or someone's opinion.

Copyright: can I use this image, song or clip?

Citing tells readers where something came from. Copyright is a separate question: am I allowed to use it?

  • In Canada, fair dealing allows limited, fair use for purposes including research, private study, education, parody, satire, criticism, review and news reporting. A short quotation in a school essay usually fits. Reposting a whole song in a public video usually doesn't.
  • Creative Commons licences tell you what's allowed: BY = give credit; SA = share alike (use the same licence); NC = non-commercial only; ND = no changes.
  • Public domain works have no copyright (for example, because copyright expired) and can be reused freely, though you should still credit them.
  • Best choices for published projects: your own photos and recordings, Creative Commons or public-domain media (use the licence filter in image searches), or ask permission.

MLA style (9th edition): in-text citations

The in-text citation points to the matching Works Cited entry. Use the first word of the entry (usually the author's last name) and a page number if there is one.

  • One author: (Lee 14) or Lee argues... (14)
  • Two authors: (Lee and Shah 22)
  • Three or more: (Lee et al. 9)
  • No author: a shortened title in quotation marks: ("Warmer Winters")
  • No page numbers (most websites and videos): just the name: (Okafor)

The citation goes after the closing quotation mark and before the period: ... "is free for anyone with skates" (Lee 14).

Block quotations: a quotation longer than four lines of prose is set off as a block, indented half an inch (1.27 cm) from the left margin, without quotation marks, and the citation goes after the final period. Use them rarely.

MLA works cited entry: core elements in order1. Author.2. "Title of Source."3. Title of Container,4-6. Contributors,version, number,7. Publisher,8. Publication date,9. Location (page or URL).Example (a web article):Okafor, Dana. "Warmer Winters, Shorter Seasons." Lakeside WeatherWatch, 12 Feb. 2025, www.lakesideweather.example/winter.Use only the elements your source has. Second lines get a hanging indent.
The nine MLA core elements always go in this order. A web article usually needs only author, title, container (the website), date and location (the URL).
Source typeMLA Works Cited entry (invented examples)
Book, one authorLee, Morgan. Ice Time: Community Rinks in Canada. Northshore Press, 2023.
Book, two authorsLee, Morgan, and Priya Shah. Frozen Ponds. Northshore Press, 2021.
Web article, no author"Warmer Winters, Shorter Seasons." Lakeside Weather Watch, 12 Feb. 2025, www.lakesideweather.example/winter.
Online video"How to Build a Backyard Rink." YouTube, uploaded by Rink Rats Canada, 3 Dec. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=example.
Interview you conductedRuiz, Alberto. Personal interview. 18 Jan. 2026.
Short story in a collectionTremblay, Josée. "First Ice." Winter Tales, edited by Sam Lin, Aurora Press, 2020, pp. 33-41.
Titles of whole works (books, websites, video platforms) are in italics; titles of parts (articles, stories, videos) are in quotation marks. MLA drops the https:// from URLs and abbreviates most months.
Worked example

Let's cite three sources and use them in a sentence

You used: (1) page 41 of a book by Rhea Thompson called Snow Science, published by Boreal Books in 2022; (2) a web article with no author called "Why Ice Cracks" on the website Cold Facts, posted 5 Jan. 2025 at coldfacts.example/ice; (3) a video interview with a coach, Ken Wu, that you recorded on 2 Feb. 2026.

  1. Book entry: Thompson, Rhea. Snow Science. Boreal Books, 2022. (The book title is in italics.)
  2. Web article with no author: start with the title: "Why Ice Cracks." Cold Facts, 5 Jan. 2025, coldfacts.example/ice. (Website name in italics.)
  3. Your interview: Wu, Ken. Personal interview. 2 Feb. 2026.
  4. Alphabetize by the first word, ignoring A, An, The: Thompson, "Why Ice Cracks," Wu. So the order is Thompson, Why, Wu.
  5. In-text: Fresh snow is mostly trapped air (Thompson 41), which is why ice that forms under a snow layer can be weaker ("Why Ice Cracks"). Coach Ken Wu tells his players to stay off any ice until adults have checked it (Wu).

Three entries in alphabetical order, each with a hanging indent, and every in-text citation matching the first word of an entry.

Citing people's knowledge, including Elders and Knowledge Keepers

When someone shares knowledge with you in an interview or a visit, cite them as a personal communication or interview. For First Nations, Métis and Inuit Elders and Knowledge Keepers, many Canadian libraries share templates created by librarian Lorisia MacLeod (in her 2021 article "More Than Personal Communication") that recognize the person and their community. Her MLA template looks like this:

Last name, First name. Nation or community. Treaty territory (if applicable). Where they live (if applicable). Topic (if applicable). Date.

More important than format: ask permission before recording or sharing, follow the protocols the person or community asks for, and remember that some knowledge is not meant to be shared publicly. Ask your teacher or school library for the format they use.

Citing AI tools

If your teacher allows an AI tool, say how you used it and cite it. MLA suggests describing the prompt, then naming the tool, version, company and date, for example: "Suggest synonyms for 'rink' and 'arena'" prompt. Tool Name, version, Company, 10 Mar. 2026. Never cite an AI tool for a fact: find the fact in a reliable source and cite that.

Format the Works Cited page

  • Start a new page titled Works Cited (centred, not bold).
  • Alphabetical order by the first word of each entry.
  • Double-spaced, with a hanging indent of 1.27 cm (half an inch). In most word processors: Format > Paragraph > Special > Hanging.
  • Every in-text citation has an entry, and every entry is cited at least once.
Hands-on activity

Bookshelf citations

Choose three things from your home: a book, a magazine or newspaper article (print or online), and a video, song or podcast episode.

  1. Find each core element: author, title, container, publisher, date, location (page or URL).
  2. Write an MLA Works Cited entry for each.
  3. Put them in alphabetical order with hanging indents (handwritten is fine: indent the second line).
  4. For any image you might reuse in a school project, look for its copyright or licence information. Write what you'd be allowed to do with it.

What to look for: italics (or underlining by hand) for whole works, quotation marks for parts, periods after the author and the title, and day-month-year dates.

Just for fun

MLA stands for the Modern Language Association, which was founded in 1883. So the "modern" in MLA is more than 140 years old, and somehow its rules still tell you how to cite a YouTube video.

Your turn

1

Is it plagiarism? A student copies a sentence word for word, adds a citation, but leaves out the quotation marks.

2

Write the in-text citation for page 88 of a book by Ana Costa and Ben Hill.

3

Write the in-text citation for a web article with no author titled "Saving the Monarch Butterfly."

4

Write a Works Cited entry: a book by Jasmine Okoro, Northern Rivers, Maple Leaf Press, 2019.

5

An image has the licence CC BY-NC. Can you use it on your school club's free website? On a T-shirt you sell?

6

Does Canada has ten provinces and three territories need a citation? Why?

7

When should a quotation be formatted as a block quotation in MLA?

More practice: warm-up

1

Name two forms of plagiarism.

2

In MLA, are book titles in italics or quotation marks?

3

Where does the period go with an in-text citation at the end of a sentence?

4

What does BY mean in a Creative Commons licence?

5

How are Works Cited entries ordered?

More practice: on your own

1

Write a Works Cited entry for an article by Raj Patel called "Ice Roads Melt Early" on the website North Today, posted 9 Mar. 2025, at northtoday.example/ice-roads.

2

Put these entries in order: Zhou, Li...; "A Guide to Snowshoes."...; Anderson, Kim...

3

Fix the citation: "Rinks bring people together." (Lee, page 5).

4

A friend offers to let you read their essay from last year on the same novel "for ideas." What is the academic honesty risk, and what would you do?

5

Your teacher allowed AI only to brainstorm topics. You used it to brainstorm, then wrote everything yourself. What should you do?

Challenge

1

Write a Works Cited entry for a short story, "The Long Portage" by Eli Morin, pages 12 to 25 in the collection Paddle Stories, edited by Rosa Diaz, published by Canoe Press in 2018.

2

Explain the difference between citing a source and having permission to use it. Give an example.

3

A student invents a quotation from "a scientist" because they couldn't find one. Explain why this is serious even if the idea is true.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which is not plagiarism?

2.

Correct MLA in-text citation for page 30 of a book by three authors, the first named Kim:

3.

In MLA, the container of a web article is:

4.

A CC BY-ND licence means you:

5.

Which statement about fair dealing in Canada is accurate?

6.

Before recording an Elder's teaching for a class project, you should first:

7.

Which Works Cited entry is formatted correctly?

For parents and teachers

Academic honesty is taken seriously in high school, and consequences can include redoing work or a mark of zero, depending on your school's policy. Most plagiarism by Grade 9 students is accidental: poor notes, patchwriting, or not knowing that ideas (not just words) must be cited.

How to help: ask to see the Works Cited before an assignment is submitted; check that every entry is cited in the text. Talk openly about AI tools: ask what the teacher's policy is for this assignment, and encourage your teen to disclose any use. For images and music in projects, steer them to their own photos or to Creative Commons media.

Common difficulties: forgetting quotation marks, putting the period before the citation, alphabetizing by first name, and citing a search engine ("Google") instead of the actual source.