You have plagiarized if
• you took notes that did not distinguish summary and paraphrase from quotation and then you presented wording from the notes as if it were all your own.
• while browsing the Web, you copied text and pasted it into your paper without quotation marks or without citing the source.
• you presented facts without saying where you found them.
• you repeated or paraphrased someone’s wording without acknowledgment.
• You paraphrased someone’s argument or presented someone’s line of thought without acknowledgment.
• You bought or otherwise acquired a research paper and handed in part or all of it as your own.
You can avoid plagiarism by
• making a list of the writers and viewpoints you discovered in your research and using this list to double-check the presentation of material in your paper
• keeping the following three categories distinct in your notes: your ideas, your summaries of others’ material, and exact wording you copy.
• identifying the sources of all material you borrow-exact wording, paraphrases, ideas, arguments, and facts.
• checking with your instructor when you are uncertain about your use of sources.
Source: Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for writers of research papers, sixth edition, Modern Language Association of America, c2003, p.75
