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Avoid it! Avoid what you ask, the plague? Swine flu? How about an angry member of the People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals? No, would you believe that the answer is d): none of the above? The true answer is plagiarism, and believe you me, it can be just as deadly as any of the other answers. What is plagiarism? Well it is defined as the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own and it can entail many, many things. In fact this chapter lists all the ways that I can think of that come across as plagiarism, they include, but certainly are not limited to: buying a paper off of the internet, turning in something someone else has written, changing parts of someone else’s paper and turning it in, not using quotation marks on direct quotes from sources, just using ‘copy and paste’ on key parts of an article, using ideas from sources without citing them, combining ideas from several sources and not citing them, and taking language or visual ideas from someone else’s work. Wow, right? I know I was astounded at the massive number of ways that people have found to cheat the system instead of just using the massive amount of ways that you can cite sources or bring a source’s ideas into your own work without plagiarizing or taking credit for that which is not earned. To avoid plagiarism just acknowledge when you are using someone else’s ideas, words, or images. Also make sure you use the right documentation style, that you write down all the facts for documenting a source, just in case you lose the source, and, if you have any questions, make sure you consult an instructor because they will help you out. They have to, because plagiarism results in expulsion.