Plagiarism is the act of passing off someone else’s ideas or words as your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to properly cite all the sources you used in your writing.
The only time you don’t need to cite information is if it is:
- Your own observations, opinions, or analysis
- Data from the result of an experiment you performed yourself
- Common knowledge (examples: The United States is a country in North America; plants need water, sunlight, and nutrients to survive; Michelangelo Caravaggio was an Italian painter)
A piece of information is generally considered common knowledge if you can find it, uncited, in at least three reliable sources. If you have any doubt, you’re better off citing the information than not.
Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism
Use your own words, or use quotation marks.
When praphrasing someone else’s words, you cannot simply swap a synonym or two; you must also change the sentence structure. If you use any of the exact words of a source, put those words in quotation marks.
Stay organized.
Keep an organized list of your sources. Store your notes in a separate document, not in the body of your paper. Don’t wait to add all your in-text citations until the end.
Do a final check.
Before you turn in your paper, go back and double check all of your citations. Look them up in the original sources to make sure that you haven’t accidentally copied any language.