How can I avoid plagiarism?

Answer

Plagiarism is when you present someone else's work or ideas as your own.

Plagiarism can be intentional (for example, turning in a friend's paper as if you wrote it yourself) or accidental (for example, including an article on your list of sources and paraphrasing from it without proper in-text citations, so that it appears the ideas are your own). Either way, it is still considered academic dishonesty.

Plagiarism is viewed as a serious form of academic misconduct, so it's essential to acknowledge and include citations for information taken from other authors or sources.

When is it plagiarism? Plagiarism can be:

Copying someone's words (like from a book, article, or website) or other creative work (like an image or video) without giving them credit.
Using or repeating someone's ideas or concepts without giving them credit. This includes paraphrasing to avoid giving credit. Even if you change the words, you have to give credit for people's ideas.
Intentionally presenting someone else's work as your own. This includes turning in a paper written by someone else as if you wrote it yourself, and applies whether you bought the paper from a "paper mill," paid someone to write the paper for you, or got the paper for free from another student or on the internet.
Misrepresenting someone's ideas or concepts or quoting someone's words incorrectly or out of context.
Handing in a paper you wrote for another class and expecting to get credit twice for the exact same work. If you would like to turn in a more in-depth paper for two classes instead of a shorter one for each class, talk to your teachers ahead of time to see if they would allow this arrangement.
Failing to acknowledge the contribution of others in work produced collaboratively.
Citing the wrong source or having incomplete or inaccurate citations.

When is it not plagiarism?

You do not need to give credit for statements that are considered to be "general knowledge." These are ideas that are generally accepted and that are found in a wide variety of sources. For example: