Type 1: Copy and Paste Plagiarism or Direct Plagiarism
When you copy a sentence, phrase, or paragraph word for word, but do not quote your source.
Type 2: Word Switch Plagiarism
When you rephrase a person's work and insert it into your own work without acknowledging its original source. If you take a sentence from a source and change a few works without acknowledging your source, it is still plagiarism.
This is not paraphrasing. For information on how to correctly paraphrase, see When To Cite.
Type 3: Mosaic or Blending Plagiarism
When you: mix words or ideas from an unacknowledged source in with your own words or ideas; mix together uncited words and ideas from several sources into a single work; or mix together properly cited uses of a source with uncited uses.
Type 4: Insufficient Acknowledgement
When you correctly cite your source once, but continue to use the author's work with out giving additional proper citation.
Type 5: Self-Plagiarism
When you use a paper or assignment completed for one class to satisfy the assignment for a different class. Even if you modify a previous paper or assignment, you must get permission from your professor/ instructor and correctly cite your previous paper.
Paraphrasing is about transferring the author's ideas into your writing, not about transferring the author's words. The ideas still belong to the author--so you must cite--but the words should belong to you.
Here are the steps to paraphrasing properly:
1. Reread the original passage until you fully understand it. Paraphrasing focuses on the big picture, not sentence-by-sentence or word-by-word.
2. Set aside the original article. Explain the main idea out loud to yourself or to a friend without looking at the article. If you can't explain it without looking back, then you don't understand it well enough to use it in your work.
3. Now ask: Why is this passage important to my work? The answer to this question will form the basis of your paraphrase.
4. Still avoiding the original passage, write a paraphrase, using your own words. Make sure to explain how it connects to your overall research topic.
5. Use quotation marks to identify any place where you used any of the author's phrases or unique wording.
6. Add the appropriate citation. The ideas belong to someone else, so you have to give them credit.
To give credit to people for their ideas. Information is the currency of academia. Scholars work hard to conduct research, articulate their findings, and publish articles. They should receive credit for this work.
To establish ethos (credibility) as a writer. Citing sources demonstrates that you're familiar with the research in your field, and it allows you to provide verifiable evidence for your claims.