Play-GUR-is-um - (verb) The act of plagiarising; stealing or copying one's ideas, work, or thoughts as another's own without permission. Plagiarism is serious, guys. Reading this blog may teach you some things that you wouldn't normally think of plagiarism and its consenquences.

Ever been so desperate for an idea that you copy it? Even out of the internet, book, etc.? Taking ANY work or original idea from someone else without their written or verbal permission is a serious offence. The U.S. Law established in 1989 states that it is a CRIME to plagiarise. Plagiarism could be any of the following:
-Copying work word for word with giving any credit to the source whatsoever
-Taking someone's work and changing the wording, but still having the same meaning and sentence structure. No credit given to the author.
-Giving credit to the source, but not puting speech in quotation marks.
-Using someone's work, but incorrectly giving credit whether by an error or perposely.

A good way to avoid plagiarising while still using someone else work is to do all of the following:
-Give eligible credit to the source.
-Put any speech in quotation marks.
-Put your sources' thoughts into your own words by either chaging the tone, words, and sentence structure.

Just remember these few things as you are using a source. And most importantly, keep it original!

Information gathered from plagiarism.org. Used with permission.