It is a form of cheating and a kind of academic misconduct that can incur severe penalties. It is important, therefore, that you understand what it consists of, so that you will not unwittingly jeopardize your graduate career.
Plagiarism can take several forms.
A second form of plagiarism is the unacknowledged paraphrasing of the structure and language of another person's work. Changing a few words of another's composition, omitting a few sentences, or changing their order does not constitute original composition and therefore can be given no credit. If such borrowing or paraphrasing is ever necessary, the source must be scrupulously indicated by footnotes, or other appropriate forms of scholarly citation. Still another form of plagiarism is more difficult to define. It consists of writing a paper based solely on the ideas of another.