As Anna and Jules illustrate in the video, it is easy to commit an act of plagiarism. To make sure that you never do, systematically cite your sources when you use excerpts from any documents, be they print, audiovisual or of any other type. You are allowed to use an author’s words or ideas, but your reader has to be able to distinguish with certainty between what you have borrowed and your own words and ideas.

Some advice:

• Systematically note down the complete references for sources as soon as you have found them. (You can do this by using reference management software if you wish.)
• Even when you reformulate the words of an author (this is called paraphrasing), you must indicate the source in the same way you would for a quotation.
• Choose your sources carefully. Your paper will be more favorably evaluated if you’re able to find and cite relevant, varied and high-quality sources.