 By the time Joe graduated, he had heard don't plagiarize more times than he could count. It was listed in every syllabus he was provided as an NKU student. It was often mentioned on the first day of class, and some instructors even dedicated an entire day to the topic. Through this, Joe learned that plagiarizing means taking someone else's work and presenting it as his own. A violation of the student honor code and of the ethical principles of nearly every professional association. After hearing so much about it, the very idea of plagiarism terrified Joe. He knew such an act resulted in major academic consequences, possibly even being kicked out of school. Even though Joe knew he needed to cite his sources, he would still get frustrated. Early in his college career, he was told to use a style for citing sources called MLA, but then, when he started taking communication classes, he was told to use APA style. He also had friends who had used Chicago style. This was confusing, and sometimes he felt the whole thing was pointless. Why did it matter how he cited his sources, where he placed the comma, and while he of course didn't want to cheat, why were all of his instructors so strict? Joe's frustrations are common, but getting hung up on the proper format and the rules of citations caused him to lose sight of the bigger picture. Citing sources was not something his instructors were making him do as a punishment. Instead, there was a much more important purpose than just seeing if he could follow instructions. To help him understand, a librarian suggested he consider his final product, whether it's a research paper, a press release, or a multimedia presentation, as one part of a much larger conversation. Through his citations, Joe is conversing with other experts on the topic. A lack of citations in a paper meant he was conversing with nobody but himself. Further, each article, book, website, or piece of information Joe read is also just one very small part of a much larger conversation. For example, in this article, the authors conducted a research study to look at public relations ethics in more than 100 countries. However, these authors are certainly not the first to discuss, study, and advance ideas concerning ethics. In just the first few paragraphs, readers can see several other works are cited that have already examined ethics in PR. By incorporating and citing other work, the authors are not only acknowledging prior studies on the topic, but they are also having a conversation with these prior authors and then adding their own voice to that conversation. And then the conversation continues into the future. New authors will tackle this topic and then in reference this study in their future work. In this way, many articles and authors are connected and related works can be found simply by starting with one piece of information. The librarian explained to Joe that as a public relations major who is studying topics relevant to that field and creating information relevant to the field, he is joining in the conversation. Because he is joining in the conversation, it becomes his responsibility to tie his voice in with others who have preceded him in the discussion. He didn't develop his ideas out of thin air, but they came to him based on what others had said, and it's important to acknowledge those voices when presenting those ideas. Further, by using a formal citation style, Joe is legitimizing his work and himself in that conversation. The librarian explained different disciplines have a citation style that is most commonly used in that field. This helps ensure consistency for all of the works in that field. And by using the citation style prominent in that field, Joe is showing he understands the culture. Just like it wouldn't work to start speaking German in a conversation among English speakers, it wouldn't work for him to start using MLA in a conversation where everyone else was using APA. In summary, citing sources is not just about following rules, but it's an important part of engaging in the ongoing conversation on the topic.