Plagiarism refers to using another person's words or ideas, or any other work produced by another person or entity, without attributing it to the original creator. This can be any work and is not limited to the words of others.
To avoid committing plagiarism, referencing is essential to show where you got the information that you are using. You do not need to reference something that is common knowledge - for example: Paris is the capital city of France. Common knowledge refers to information that a general reader in your subject area would know. However there may be information that you are using which falls outside of common knowledge. A good rule of thumb is that you should reference anything if you are unsure whether or not it falls outside of the area of common knowledge.
Plagiarism can happen on purpose, such as by copying an essay, or by accident by not referencing information sources properly. It is important to note though, that there is no real difference when it comes to intentions and plagiarism - even if committed in error, plagiarism can still have very serious academic consequences.
If you are found to have plagiarised, it can lead to losing all marks on the assignment. Sometimes there may be graver consequences such as reduced marks for a module of study and in certain circumstances, expulsion from your course of study.
There are many diverse types of plagiarism, which is shown below:
There is no need to reference information that is common knowledge. It is generally defined as facts, dates, events and information that are expected to be known by someone studying a particular subject. This is the idea that the fact is not in dispute within the field. However, if you are for example citing specific information, in general that is not common knowledge. Though the main advice is, if you are not sure, 'it is better to cite than not to cite'.
Academic misconduct through contract cheating occurs when a student uses an undeclared / unauthorised third party to produce work for any kind of academic assessment. Contract cheating may be carried out for payment or free of charge and may be carried out by different types of entities - an online company, for example, or a friend or colleague. If another student produces work for a student for the purposes of academic assessment, both students are in violation of the Academic Integrity Policy.
Contract cheating services - sometimes called Essay Mills - directly target students across social media platforms and through legitimate-looking websites. Many look like services designed specifically to support students. If you are contacted directly by a contract cheating service and you are not sure what to do let your lecturer or tutor know and they will be able to give you advice.
(https://academicintegrity.org/what-is-contract-cheating)
A video going over what essay mills are and how to avoid them.
Recycling or borrowing work from a previously submitted assignment or exam, in part or in full, and resubmitting it in another assignment without citation.
Quoting directly from another source without acknowledgement. This includes, but is not limited to, books, ebooks, journal or ejournal articles, reports, blogs, websites and social media.
The intention behind plagiarism is largely irrelevant. If you don't reference when you use information from another source, even by accident, you will be brought up for plagiarism. This includes forgetting to put quotation marks around the quoted passage.
Paraphrasing the work of others without acknowledging the source.
Using content generated by AI, where permitted by the lecturer, without acknowledgement.