Talk:Plagiarism

I think that this article needs expansion and clarification. There are many examples of plagiarism on Conservapedia, perhaps because editors are not aware of what exactly constitutes plagiarism. Copy-and-pasting articles from other websites without quotation marks is plagiarism, even if the source website is listed as a 'reference' or 'source'. If the words are not yours, they should be in quotation marks, and the source is preferably mentioned directly in the text in addition to a reference footnote that shows exactly where the material came from. Footnotes should also lead the reader directly to the page from which the material was taken, if possible. Directing someone to a general web page and making them drill down through multiple layers of links to find the page from which you quoted is ethically questionable, as it obscures the true source of your information. When quoting from a printed work, page numbers should be used to aid the reader in tracking down the citation.

No doubt others will be able to give more concrete examples of how to avoid inadvertent plagiarism.