My daughter came home, annoyed that she’d had ten points taken off on a paper because, as the teacher put it, "It doesn’t all read in your own voice." AKA – a bit too much paraphrasing of sources going on here.

She looked at me. "You don’t think I’m going to fight this do you?" She was surprised. Yes, she had thought that. I explained to her what I’d told her a million times, that when you are doing research for a paper, you do the research, and then you think about it for a day or two, and then come back and write the paper, the first time, without referring to sources directly, just getting it all out. (At least that’s what I do!). Then go back and clean it up and add your references and check your facts. You then have put yourself at a distance from the original sources and aren’t at risk of plagiarizing, even inadvertently.

It’s okay.

Happens to the best of us.