Avoiding Plagiarism
There are three ethical ways to use other people's ideas:
- Summary - taking something big and complicated - like a novel - and making it small - like a sentence. Best used when you just want to share what matters.
- Paraphrase - taking something already small and putting it into your own words while keeping the author's meaning. Best used when the author's exact words do not matter or the idea can be expressed in a better way.
- Quotation - taking someone's exact words and using them. Best used when the exact words are important not just the ideas behind them.
All ethical ways of using someone else's ideas above require crediting that person using citations.
