Plagiarism may be intentional, but more often it is the result of not knowing when and how to document sources appropriately. Your paraphrase will be at least as long as the original material. A summary will identify the main points of the source, and will be much shorter than the original material. Use quotations to support what you say not to present your thesis or main points. Quotations must be set off by quotation marks and quotes longer than five lines must be indented and single-spaced.
Common knowledge refers to information most educated people know.
You may use either the MLA or APA style for citations, as long as you are consistent. Your bibliography must be in the same style as your citations. The rules for avoiding plagiarism apply to online sources also. Rules to Remember 1. If you use a direct quote, you must use quotation marks, and provide a citation.