You may be plagiarising without realizing it. Plagiarism isn't only obvious theft such as buying a paper off the web or copying and pasting entire papers. Failing to properly cite the source of the words and ideas you use in your paper also constitutes plagiarism.
Plagiarism is theft of someone's words or ideas. "Plagiarism is pretending that an idea is yours when in fact you found it in a source. You can therefore be guilty of plagiarism even if you thoroughly rewrite the source's words. One of the goals of education is to help you work with and credit the ideas of others. When you use another's idea, whether from a book, a lecture, a Web page, a friend's paper, or any other source, and whether you quote the words or restate the idea in your own words, you must give that person credit with a citation" (Harris, 2001, p. 132).
Harris, R. A. (2001). The plagiarism handbook: Strategies for preventing, detecting, and dealing with plagiarism. Pyrczak Publishing.
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This video discusses plagiarism and how to avoid it when using and citing resources, including:
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