The skilled mixing of paraphrasing, quoting, and summarizing source material into your papers is known as source blending, and it requires more practice and structure than adding bananas, berries, and protein powder into your next smoothie. Blending involves taking pieces from different sources and putting them together to create a new product that is unique but also consistent with the original ingredients. In academic writing, this means finding relevant information in different places and combining it with other information to produce something new. For example, let's say you need to write an essay on how healthy apple pie is. You could search for information about nutrition facts and health benefits of apples and then use that information to create an argument about how healthy apple pie is. Or you could find articles about the history of apple pie and why Americans love it so much and then use those ideas to come up with your own conclusion about how healthy apple pie is. Source blending is a useful tool for writers to create high-quality essays or research papers. It is important to note that blending does not mean plagiarism. Even if you are using parts of other people's words, opinions, or ideas, that does not mean you have to give credit where it is due. Authors often borrow from others because they want to offer a new perspective or make their points more effectively.