The material you find electronically was put there by someone, and you are legally and morally required to give appropriate credit--just as you do for other sources of information. You will notice on many Websites a line from the author granting permission to reproduce the material for personal use--but you still have to give that author credit. And in fact, you want the authority of the source as support for the quality of your research and the legitimacy of your conclusions. As with print sources, give as complete a description as you can, so the reader of your paper can consult your sources firsthand if desired.

Withstand the temptation to keep huge chunks of material that you found in their original form. It is tempting--particularly because it's already typed! Know that not only is the penalty for plagiarism severe (failure of the course or expulsion from college), it's also possible to be discovered, since your instructor has the same Internet access as you. Some instructors, in fact, are now requiring their students to print all their sources and submit them with their paper.

Be sure that your thoughts dominate the report. Your paper is your interpretation of what you have found--supported by the facts and opinions you cite. In other words, don't just string your findings together without reacting to the information; analyze and interpret the data, in a logical format, according to your sense of the most important points. Make certain that you place quotation marks around any phrases taken from another person's writing or speech, and tell where you got those phrases.