Plagiarism is the use of someone else's writing or ideas as your own and is a criminal act. J. C. Hodges and M. E. Whitten, in the 8th edition (1977:p. 372) of the Harbrace College Handbook (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.), describe plagiarism in the following manner:

If you fail to acknowledge borrowed material, then you are plagiarizing. Plagiarism is literary theft. When you copy the words of another, be sure to put those words inside quotation marks and to acknowledge the source with a footnote [or, in our case, a citation]. When you paraphrase the words of another, use your own words and your own sentence structure, and be sure to give a footnote [citation] citing the source of the idea. A plagiarist often merely changes a few words or rearranges the words in the source. As you take notes and as you write your paper, be especially careful to avoid plagiarism." "Unless you are quoting directly, avoid entirely the sentence patterns of the source.

I want to emphasize the major points given in the above quote:

TYPE 1 PLAGIARISM: NOT USING QUOTATION MARKS

• When you use someone else's words, always put them in quotation marks and cite the source within the body of the text as well as in the literature cited section!
• If you include a quote, you must use the exact words of the author or it is a misquote.
• Use quotations only when it is absolutely essential for the reader to know exactly what that particular person said word for word.

• All information/ideas that are not part of general knowledge that you obtained from someone else, must be cited (within the sentence containing the information and in the literature cited section) even if you used your own words.
• This is taken seriously in science (scientists are always skeptical of information).

• It is plagiarism to use someone else's sequence of sentences and just change a few words or their position in each sentence.
• I want you to read your sources of information, synthesize the material in your head, and then write what you know in your own unique way.
• Don't worry about having to use technical words; you and your classmates must know what everything means in your report.
• If you find yourself with the source of information in one hand while you are writing your report in the other hand, then there is a good chance you are plagiarizing