Plagiarism is using other people's ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information. It can be intentional, but you might do it without even realizing it.
There can be serious consequences for plagiarizing, from getting a zero on a paper to a full-blown lawsuit. But, don't worry! We'll help you learn what needs to be cited and how to avoid plagiarism.
To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you:
From: http://new.library.arizona.edu/research/citing/plagiarism
Quoting is copying the exact words from another source. You need to put quotation marks around the words and include an in-text citation. An example would be:
"Quoting is not using your own ideas, but just copying and pasting someone else's ideas" (Wright, 2018, p.1).
Paraphrasing is the act, perhaps the art, of rewriting a piece of text in your own words. But it is unacceptable simply to reword, rearrange or abbreviate a text and claim that this makes you the sole author. Plagiarism applies not only to words but also ideas, so paraphrasing a source does not make it your intellectual property. You must still provide in-text citations and full end notes for sources from which you have lifted observations or lines of argument—even in the absence of direct quotation. An example would be:
Here is the original source an author might use in a paper:
Differentiation as an instructional approach promotes a balance between a student's style and a student's ability. Differentiated instruction provides the student with options for processing and internalizing the content, and for constructing new learning in order to progress academically.
Here is an example of bad paraphrasing of the source. Even though the student is citing correctly, underlined words are simply synonyms of words used in the original source. You can also see how the sentence structure is the same for both the original source and this paraphrase.
Differentiation is a way to encourage equality between the approach and talent of the student (Thompson, 2009). This type of instruction gives students different ways to deal with and grasp information, and for establishing new learning to move on in education (Thompson, 2009).
Here is an example of a better way to paraphrase the source. In this example, the author has taken the essential ideas and information from the original source, but has worded it in her own way, using unique word choice and sentence structure. The author has condensed Thompson's (2009) information, including what is relevant to her paper, but leaving out extra details that she does not needed.
Teachers use differentiated instruction to help students learn, allowing the teacher to cater lessons to the way each student learns and each student's skill (Thompson, 2009).
From: https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/evidence/paraphrase/examples
Common Knowledge. Not all information requires requires citation. Factual information that is “common knowledge”—what your audience can be assumed to know—need not be cited. One simple test of common knowledge is to consult reference works to see if the information is widely reported and undisputed. Keep in mind, however, that common knowledge can change with context. Whereas a principle of physics would need to be cited in an undergraduate paper, the citation might be omitted from a paper presented at a scientific conference.