Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a touchy subject these days. There are no set rules for it. Obviously a person can’t copy someone or something word for word and take credit for it, which is a huge no no. But even changing some words around from a book is still plagiarism. It seems like people use the same excuse over and over again, “I didn’t know how to cite the source” etc. Get educated on how to cite sources or use quotation. My 10th grade English teacher really helped me combat plagiarism. A good technique I learned was, when in doubt give credit to the person you are taking the information from. That way you are in the clear, regardless of how much of the information you might or might not have used. Plagiarism sometimes is harmless and the person might not even thought about it, but most of the time it is due to laziness. So don’t be lazy, do your own work and you will never have to deal with teachers accusing you of plagiarism.