My son had to write an essay on Hemingway He researched information on the internet When he wrote the paper he was accused of plagiarizing How do you write an information essay without plagiarizing?

Plagiarizing is presenting someone else's information or ideas as though they were your own. It is okay to look things up online, but you have to keep track of each fact that you learn, and know where it came from. Then, when you use those facts in your paper, you have to cite the original source... so, for instance, you would write something like this: According to the ________ website, Ernest Hemingway was _______. (This makes it clear that the information is from somewhere else.) or When I read _____________ about Hemingway, it made me think that he might have been ________. (This makes it clear that it was something the child read that inspired them to have an insight or idea.) If the teacher uses a specific citation style, that should be communicated to your child, so you would know how to cite sources in the text of the paper... but in general, anytime you borrow information from any source, as long as you acknowledge it, and say where you got the information from, you should be okay as far as plagiarism goes. I understand your frustration. Sometimes teachers are quick to jump on plagiarism without explaining how to avoid it up front. Just work with your son and make sure that he tells in the paper where he got his information. It has to be absolutely clear which Words are his ideas, and which came from somewhere else.