1. Learning the Conventions of Academic Writing

2. Research writing in each discipline follows certain conventions. Special forms are required for citing sources and designing pages in different academic areas, for example, the Modern Language Association (MLA style) and the American Psychological Association (APA style).

3. Understand and avoiding plagiarism The most important convention of academic writing is the principle of giving proper credit to the work of others. Plagiarism is defined as the act of claiming the words or ideas of another person as your own.

4. Checklist of avoiding unintentional plagiarism Citation Quotation marks Paraphrase Parenthetical citations and notes Works cited or reference pages