Once you have sources for your paper, you need to integrate them into your paper in an ethical way to avoid plagiarism.  Plagiarism is an important issue and one that Shasta College takes very seriously.  Click here to read about the Shasta College Academic Honesty Policy.  

Plagiarism is defined as, "an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author" (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 1999).  

The good news is that plagiarism is avoidable with good practices and tools.  Below are tips and resources to help:

• Paraphrase and use your own words.  Paraphrasing is putting the information and ideas you've learned into your own words.  
   
• Include quotations.  If you use a quote from your research, use quotations and proper in-text citation to give credit.
   
• Cite your sources.  The most common citation styles at Shasta College are MLA, APA & Chicago.  Check with your instructor or syllabus to see what style they prefer.  We cover each of the style types in the next few pages.  
   
• 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.