Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else's work and ideas off as your own. If you use information from a source other then yourself and you don't give that source credit, then you are guilty of plagiarism. This includes rewriting an idea in your own words, paraphrasing, quoting and many other things that you might do while writing an academic paper.

Citing your sources is the key to avoiding plagiarism. Check out our Citing Sources Guide to find out how to correctly cite sources in your paper. If you aren't sure if you need to cite a source, ask a librarian.

When in doubt, cite it!