The easiest way to avoid plagiarism is to give credit to other people's ideas as you use them. Doing academic writing is ALL about using and building upon other's research but you have to give credit to their ideas and words. It adds credibility to your work by demonstrating your knowledge and research skills. Your reference list will also help your professor find the information you used.

"Beware of Research paper clearinghouses! Finding free papers or buying papers online is definitely considered plagiarism."

Professors have many tools which help them detect plagiarism. First, your professor "knows" the body of research you are using and will know if you are using it correctly or incorrectly. Second, your professor may require the use of Turnitin. Turnitin is a software program that checks your paper against thousands of other student's papers looking for matches which may indicated plagiarism.

"Do students know that if they found a good quote on the Internet and didn't cite it, I can usually tell? Then it only take seconds for me to find it too. I am always disappointed by students who plagiarized."