Plagism is something we hear about often, but do we really know what it means? You might hear the word used by your professor as part of a warning, and something you should avoid. But how do you do this? Let's take a look. First, what is plagiarism? It doesn't occur when a writer uses someone else's language, ideas, or other original material without acknowledging its source. Whether you intend to or not, you are stealing someone else's ideas. Here's an example. You're writing a paper for your English class and you find a great quote from a book that fits perfectly into your paper. You copy and paste the paragraph into your paper, but you don't give credit to the source. This is plagiarism. To avoid plagiarizing or passing someone else's intellectual property off as your own, be sure to include a citation after the quote. Plagiarism can be either intentional or unintentional, so we need to look at ways to avoid being an information thief. Here are five easy steps to help you avoid plagiarism. Number one, use original ideas and opinions. Write your own thoughts and explanations regarding your research topic. If you do need to use information from another source, be sure it is relevant. And if you do use it, make sure you cite it. Number two, paraphrase. When you're using information from a source, it's a good idea to put it into your own words. However, you still need to cite the source even though you're paraphrasing. Information that has common knowledge, for example, the sky is blue, does not need to be cited. Number three, cite your sources. As Avarie said, you need to cite information that you get from a source. Whether it is from a book, journal article, blog, or website, you need to cite it. Here's an example of a citation. In the parentheses, you can see that both the publication year and page number are given. There are different ways of doing this depending on the citation style you're using. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell when a citation is needed. When in doubt, cite it. Number four, use quotation marks. If you're putting information into your paper that you took directly from a source, be sure to put quotation marks around that information. This tells the reader that you're quoting directly from your source. Help! Number five, ask for help. If you're just not sure when and how to cite your information, ask for help. There are several options available to you to get help with your citations. If you're on campus, you can visit ACE. ACE is South Eastern's Academic Center for Enrichment. You can also ask a librarian such as myself, and you can even use online tools such as Purdue Owls website, which offers resources for both MLA and APA. You can also use Zotiro. Zotiro is a free tool which helps you collect, organize, and cite your sources. You can find more tutorial videos on our YouTube channel, or visit us online at library.seu.edu.