How do I avoid plagiarism?

10 Tips for Students (click here)

To know what to avoid you need to know:

What is plagiarism?

1. Plagiarism is the act of taking words, ideas, music or information from others and using them like they are your own. Someone who does this is called a “plagiarist.” While some plagiarists do this on purpose, it’s possible to do it simply through lack of proper citation. If you use someone else’s creative work, like music or photographs, especially if it isn’t for school or you make money on them, it is illegal. It breaks copyright laws. Instead of using them for inspiration to come up with your own original work, you appropriate them and try to act like their work was yours.

2. When you are writing a paper for school, things are a little different. Your audience is your teacher. When you turn in work that has your name on it, your teacher expects it to be your own. That’s part of what putting your name on an assignment means: that the work in it is yours, unless you say otherwise. It’s like the music example. If you put your name on an assignment that has other people’s words, from articles, the web or another student’s work you are committing literary theft (stealing).

3. So when you use someone else’s work, it is important to clearly and correctly cite the writing to show it isn’t your original work. If you don’t cite you are claiming it is your work. Also, if you cite incorrectly, it is still plagiarism, but it could just lower your grade. If the citation is incorrect or incomplete, it is still plagiarism and that is considered academic dishonesty. Teachers can look at these cases differently and may be more lenient if it is clear you didn’t intend to plagiarise, but it is up to your teacher and the policies at your school.

4. Someone else’s words need to be cited, but so do any of their creative works. If you are using them for school assignments (academic purposes) copyright laws allow small amounts to be used for schoolwork, but you still need to cite that you used it and where it came from. Don’t steal from others’ work; give credit for their work that you are using.

(https://www.commonsense.org/education/lesson-plans/copyright-and-plagiarism)