Plagerism

Wikipedia defines plagiarism as the "practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one's own without adequate acknowledgement." Plagiarism can occur almost everywhere, from official documents, films, journalism, and business, to schools. High schools and college teachers have to deal with this problem regularly from their students. Many students are found guilty of copying and pasting information from the internet or other sources without citing the source somewhere in their work. If the information "borrowed" is not cited IT IS considered plagiarism, and that's a huge no no! When you plagiarize you are committing an act of fraud which involves both stealing another's intellectual property, and lying about it afterwards, while claiming the paper as one's own (Plagiarism FAQ).

You are not required to cite sources for facts or information used that are considered "common knowledge," and are generally known to the community. You can use these facts in your paper without citing authors, but if you are unsure whether or not a fact is common knowledge, you should probably cite your source just to be on the safe side. There are now tools online that can help teachers recognize plagiarism easier and earlier. Turnitin.com, an online aid, is now commonly used in some High Schools. Teachers have their students submit their papers or essays to the site where the site will point out areas in the writing that seem to be plagiarized, intentionally or unintentionally. So it seems that the best way to stay out of trouble and not get caughtÐ'...is to not do it! This may seem like common sense but is common enough now where educators have to worry what is really their students writing and what has been stolen.