Plagiarism is against university policy and can result in suspension from the university.
Besides violating university policy, it is important for me to know that you understand the material and can summarize it in your own words . Thus when I encounter plagiarism, the assignment is graded 0 and the grade cannot be replaced. Depending upon the severity, I may also report the incident to the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs. In these situations it is easy to slip into plagiarism unintentionally. My rule is that if it sounds like the words of the author, or is only a slight alteration of the author's words, then it counts as plagiarism.