Plagiarism is a serious offense that can lead to expulsion from college. Most students understand that submitting to a professor a research paper that they did not write is plagiarism. And most students also know that lifting a sentence from an article, book, or web page, and placing it in a research paper without citing where it came from, is plagiarism.

However, there are many other types of plagiarism which many students commit unconsciously. They do this because they do not understand how to cite properly, or because they think the professor doesn't want to see an excessive amount of quotes and citations in their paper.

Understanding the proper way to cite sources, paraphrase, and place quotes in a research paper can not only save you from plagiarism accusations, it will make your paper easier to read, your ideas clearer, and your writing more elegant. And that can mean the difference between a C and an A!