Example: Lincoln's political career began when he ran as a Whig for the Illinois State Legislature from the town of New Salem and lost 3. Common knowledge can be specific to a course and depend on the public. For example, the number of bones in the leg could be considered a common fact in a sports training class. Source-based plagiarism is a form of plagiarism. This occurs when a writer, intentionally or unintentionally, fails to cite a source fully and accurately. This could mean stating a fact that is supported by two different sources, but only mentioning one of them could mean referring to a source that is misnamed or simply not named. Contents. Global plagiarism: plagiarizing an entire text. Textual plagiarism: directly copying words. Paraphrasing plagiarism: rephrasing ideas. Patchwork plagiarism: sewing, what is plagiarism? Plagiarism is defined as taking someone else's words, ideas, concepts, or data for one's own use without giving proper credit. Many people have heard of plagiarism, but they may not know everything that the definition includes. This section explores the nuances of plagiarism so that you can best avoid it in your work. Citation practices and avoiding plagiarism: strategies for avoiding plagiarism. Getting Started Understanding Penn's Plagiarism Policy, Example Citations For example, you can use PowerNotes or Zotero with ZotFile to maintain a working bibliography and easily distinguish ations from your own.