[originaltext] Your assignments this term will be to write two major researc

Your assignments this term will be to write two major research papers. One of the most important things about writing a research paper is giving proper credit for your sources of information. Failure to do this is called plagiarism, which is a form of intellectual dishonesty. Plagiarism is a kind of stealing or at least an unauthorized borrowing of someone else’s ideas. Sometimes inexperienced students will plagiarize unintentionally, and then be surprised when the teacher won’t accept their papers or give them a falling grade. The best way to avoid unintentional plagiarizing is to be very careful in gathering your information. As you take notes on books and magazine articles about the topic you’ve selected, first try to assimilate the information thoroughly. Secondly write it down in your own words. This is called paraphrasing. If you do a good job of paraphrasing, you’ll capture the main idea from your source without actually using any phrases from it. Most of your notes should probably be paraphrased. However, occasionally you may find something you wish to quote directly in your research paper. In this case be sure that you copy the quotation precisely in your notes and enclose it in quotation marks. That way, when you are finalizing your research paper, you’ll be able to remember which of your notes are direct quotes and which are your own summaries of the material. You can then incorporate them appropriately and give the original author proper credit.