Plagiarism is when you take another person’s work or ideas and try to use them as your own. Plagiarism may be intentional and unintentional. Intentional plagiarism is when you knowingly use someone else’s work as your own. Unintentional plagiarism is when you may not have realized the ideas or words were the same as another author, but it is still plagiarism. To avoid both forms of plagiarism, work to find the original citing of the information. When you are in doubt, cite. A citation may even be an admission you aren’t sure of the original source, but you know it is not your own work/idea.

Example: When you “Google” quotes and the result does not reference or cite the author of the quote you want to use. In this case, tell your audience your thought/search process: “I found this quote on brainyquote.com, but I was not able to find the author.” This will show your audience that you tried to attribute the work to the correct person.

            Whether intentional or unintentional, there are three types of plagiarism:

• Global: This is the lifting of an entire piece of work, word for word, and using it as your own with no source citation given.

• Incremental: This is the taking of portions of someone’s work, mainly quotes or statements, and incorporating it into your own original work without credit to the author.

• Partial: This is the taking of only a few ideas and using them without giving credit.

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