You had a brilliant brainwave about the topic you are writing an essay about. But when reading an article about the topic, after you have gone on to do some research, you see that the same idea is mentioned. It was your own idea too, before you read the article, so do you need to reference it?

Question

Answer

Yes. Great minds think alike, but even if you did think of the idea on your own you still need to reference the published source. Otherwise, readers will accuse you of plagiarism. You can use this source to support your argument, and you can try to show how your idea differs from the other author's, but you still have to cite the other source.

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No. If you come up with an idea on your own, you don't have to cite the other source.

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Answer

No. If you come up with an idea on your own, you don't have to cite the other source.

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