The Library has many books on writing. Do a keyword search on technical writing or business writing to find the most useful books on writing for engineering students.
When you write a research paper or report you need to include a bibliography or a list of the books, articles, or other publications that you used in your research. This lets your readers know that what you write is based on established research, that you didn't just make it up. And it helps any readers who want to retrace your steps or recreate your work.
Many guides are available to help students format citations for bibliographies and notes. These guides are called STYLE MANUALS. Use the style manual recommended by your professor.
Popular style manuals are APA, MLA, and Turabian. See FAQ: How Do I Write a Citation? for links and more information.
EndNote Web
A citation management tool available as part of our Web of Science (WoS) subscription. To use EndNote Web, connect to Web of Science and look for the My EndNote Web link near the top of the screen. You'll need to create a personal account in WoS to use EndNote Web. Tutorials are available.
Zotero
A free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, cite, and share your research sources. It lives right where you do your work—in the web browser itself.
Zotero Introduction
A gide to using Zotero to collect, organize, and cite your sources.
Simply put, plagiarism is copying someone's work and presenting as your own. It is unethical, a form of cheating, and a serious offense that can result in failing a course or being suspended from the University.
Cal Poly Pomona's Judicial Affairs website has information to help you avoid plagiarism. You'll also find information about the consequences of plagiarizing.
From the Judicial Affairs website: