As you wrote the first draft of your research report, you may have found yourself wondering exactly where and how all those outside sources should fit in. Is a research paper just a patchwork of information you found online and in books and magazines--things that other people said or wrote? Or is it mostly what you think and know? More importantly, how will readers know the difference?
By the time you've finished researching a report, you probably feel like your head is full of other people's ideas. But when the time comes to write your essay, it's all about you.
Your essay should be almost entirely your own thoughts. The central idea, or thesis, you're trying to prove. Your arguments and reasons that back up your thesis. The structure and organization of your main points. Even the voice, style and tone of your writing. All of it should come from you.
To keep other people's ideas from taking over your report, a good rule of thumb is the 5:1 ratio. For every one sentence of source material you include, you should write five original sentences of your own.
This report has very little original content, and is mostly just copied from different sources. This is really lazy writing, and doesn't add anything new to the topic.
This report is mostly original work, and carefully integrates just enough source material to back up the thesis.
Question
How can you avoid plagiarism when you write your research paper?
Also, always name your sources.
