Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. Intentional plagiarism involves deliberate copying or use of another’s words or ideas.

Unintentional plagiarism usually results from ignorance of the rules for citing sources or from sloppy research and note-taking. Even if plagiarism is unintentional, it is still a violation of university policy. The following guidelines, adapted from similar guidelines at UC Davis, may help you to avoid plagiarism:

• Use your own words as often as possible.
• When you do use another person’s words, use quotation marks and give credit to thesource, either within the text or in a footnote.
• Don’t make slight variations in the language and then fail to give credit to the source. If the expression is essentially the same, the original source still deserves credit.
• Document any information and ideas that are not your own original thoughts, even if you aren’t directly quoting the material.
• If you are unsure, add the footnote or citation.  It is better to risk being overly cautious rather than risk not giving credit when you should.