Most academic writing is based on the prior work of other people. Copying another person's work and submitting it as your own is plagiarism, but using someone's ideas without giving them the appropriate credit is also plagiarism, even if it is unintentional. The University Libraries staff has put together a very nice site that steps you through the process of conducting research, citing your sources, creating references, quoting, and other aspects of the research and writing process. These resources help you to avoid plagiarism.
Thanks for the link to the Libraries, Allan. I love the Copyright Perspectives page. It will be a great resource for students and faculty.
Certainly! I like pulling all of the related resources into one site, but your group has the content expertise when it comes to information literacy. I'm glad we can help each other.