After researching and gathering sources, you are ready to integrate them into your paper. This must be done in an ethical way to avoid plagiarism, that is to not "steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source" (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, 2024). 

Plagiarism is an important issue; one that Shasta College takes very seriously and can result in failing a course, dismissal from a program, or dismissal from the college.  Click here to read about the Shasta College Academic Honesty Policy.  

The good news is that plagiarism is avoidable. Below are resources to help:

• Follow this guide's tips!
  • Paraphrase and use your own words while still using proper in-text citation to give credit to where you got the idea.
  • Include quotations taken verbatim from your source with quotation marks and proper in-text citation to give credit. 
  • Then, list your sources you used in your paper as complete citations on the References page at the end of your paper.
• Make an appointment with a writing center tutor.  They will assist you in writing your paper, avoiding plagiarism, and using proper citation techniques.   You can also make an appointment with a librarian, who can help you construct proper citations for your reference page or bibliography. 
• As an option, you can try using a citation manager such as Zotero.org. Citation management tools help you collect references and notes as you do research. Citations generated by a computer should always be checked for errors.