One way to avoid unintentional plagiarizing is by learning to use style manuals properly. These style guides are guidelines for how to cite books, articles, web pages, and other items that you quote or paraphrase from in your research papers. Guides are very confusing to use because there are so many examples of what citations should look like depending on what kind of item you are citing. In addition, many guides are written for graduate and doctoral students who are writing different kinds of research papers than undergraduates, so there is advice that does not pertain to every research paper. Be patient, utilize the guide's index, and ask a librarian if you become too frustrated!

One key thing to note when you are looking at examples in style guides is whether an example in the guide is for the bibliography or "works cited" list or for a footnote, endnote, or in-text note.

Your instructor will tell you what style guide to use for a particular research paper. For a list of the different style guides, consult the Online Writing Guide's page on Style Guides.