If you are not already an expert in an area, you will need to consult people who are. In this case you will be acting like a reporter to explain a technical topic to a lay audience. There is nothing at all wrong with needing to learn more yourself prior to teaching others, but you do acquire an obligation to give credit to those who helped you. Failure to meet this obligation raises the issue of plagiarism, a technical term which means using other people s facts and understanding but acting like you knew or discovered these things on your own. Plagiarism is fundamentally dishonest and is viewed very negatively in college and the professions to the point that people have lost their careers when their plagiarism of other people s work has come to light.
Many young students commit the serious professional crime of plagiarism quite by accident.
Any instructor has seen the various grades of naive plagiarism. The most serious type is the sophisticated paper from an unsophisticated student which makes no reference to other people whatsoever. At best, this paper betrays complete ignorance of what is required in the assignment. Almost as bad is the paper which contains a list of works cited but which doesn t actually cite any of the works listed. This paper suggests a dim awareness of what is required but seems to couple it with profound laziness.