Assemble each citation by ordering its fields the way the style demands, then judge whether a student's paraphrase crosses the line into plagiarism.
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How to play
Two different exercises share one game. In the first you assemble a citation, dragging a source's fields into the order a given style demands — each style has its own ordering and its own punctuation, so there is exactly one correct rendering. In the second you compare a paraphrase against its source and judge how far it has gone.
Citation assembly is about order, not content: the fields are all there, in the wrong sequence.
Each style defines both the ordered fields and the punctuation that joins them.
A correct arrangement renders to one canonical string, so there is no partial credit for nearly right.
Spot the lift asks you to classify a paraphrase as fair use, patchwork plagiarism, or outright theft.
Patchwork is the difficult middle case — original structure with words swapped out.
Game modes
Daily: a fixed case shared by everyone each day
Practice: fresh randomized rounds
Controls
Desktop: drag field tokens between slots, or click a token to swap it rightward; click choices to judge a lift
Phone & tablet: tap a token to swap it into the next slot and tap a verdict button
Tips & strategy
Learn the punctuation, not just the order. Most wrong answers in assembly have the right fields in the right places and the wrong separators between them.
For spot the lift, compare structure before wording. Theft and patchwork both reuse the shape of the original; fair use does not.
A paraphrase that follows the source sentence for sentence is patchwork even when no phrase matches.
Check whether the source is credited at all — attribution is what separates the middle case from the worst one.
Styles differ most at the edges: author order, dates, and where the title sits. Those are the fields worth checking twice.
What you'll learn
Cite Right drills citation formatting and academic-integrity habits.
Skills: citation formatting, academic integrity, research skills
Best for: roughly grades 8–12 (ages 13+)
For parents & teachers: citations and academic integrity.
Origins
Assembling a citation in the order a given style demands is bibliographic form, and each style orders the fields differently.
Running several styles against the same source is the original structure.
The differences look arbitrary and mostly are, but they encode priorities: styles that put the date early belong to fields where currency matters, and those that lead with the author belong to fields where authority does. Knowing which fields exist is the transferable part.
About Cite Right
Cite Right is an original free browser study game that drills citation formatting and academic-integrity judgement, turning the dry rules of referencing into a hands-on ordering and classification puzzle.
A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.
