You can avoid plagiarism by:

• Taking careful notes, writing down the citation for the source, and indicating page numbers.
  
  
• Using quotations when copying the words of an author.
  
  
• Giving credit to the original author in the text and bibliography of your paper.
  
  
• Not procrastinating. You are more likely to plagiarize--either accidentally or on purpose--when you are in a rush.