Im just putting in my 2 cents in for this one for sure, and for those of you who do not know what constitutes plagiarism, plagiarism takes its course when you steal somebody else's writing and work and claim that it is your hard work. I've been through college and have worked very hard on papers and my work has been used by other people. Plagiarism in my eyes is no different than sleeping with somebody's wife.
Plajiorism, is a serious offense within any, and all colleges and universities. I was taught about this ominous offense in highschool and I have witnessed students expelled from an accredited University for using anothers and claiming it as their own writting and work. There is not anybody worse than a lazy sstudet steal an essay or article from the internet, claim, and copy the work and use it as his own, while failing to quote and cite the Authors ideas, cut and paste and turn it in for a grade.
To avoid the smallest of issued, just dont do it. Using an Author's idea, or quote from an essay or an articleand putting it into your own words is an offense unless you quote the sentence(s), or cite a used or summarized passage (in your own words) of anothers work.
I figure that rules are rules, and I constantly break them, but I just break the unimportant ones. Lol.
The easiest way to deal with this issue on this site is to come up with your own ideas and don't expand on anybody else's.... come up with your own shit; besides it makes for excellent ideas as well as discussion.