St. Peter's
Seminary

How to Recognize and Avoid Plagiarism 

You would be plagiarizing in any one of the following three basic instances: 

1. If you fail to enclose quoted material within quotation marks.
2. If you do not cite the source of a direct quotation in the text of the paper and/or on the Works Cited or Reference page, or if you do not identify the correct source of a quotation.
3. If you include paraphrased or summarized information (that is not “common knowledge”) but do not openly acknowledge its source within the Works Cited list. 

To avoid plagiarism you must: 

1. Always put quotation marks around any direct statement from someone else’s work (or indent and single-space extended quotations). Always give a footnote, endnote or other form of citation for this quotation.
2. Cite any paraphrase of another writer’s ideas or statements.
3. Cite any thoughts derived from a specific source in your reading.
4. Cite any material, ideas, thoughts, etc., gained from your reading that can’t be described as common knowledge.
5. Cite and summary (even if in your own words) of a discussion from one of your sources.
6. Cite any charts, graphs, tables, etc., made by others or any you make using the material of others.