The dishonestly of plagiarism, the taking of someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as your own, is an action that could cause you to fail your course or assignment and even lead to your expulsion from college. But plagiarism's close relation, paraphrasing, can be confusing. Paraphrasing, the rewording of someone else's written or spoken words, still counts as academic dishonesty even though you rephrase a quote because the original idea is not your own. Paraphrased sentences still need an in text citation within the work because you are quoting someone else's words or ideas.
When properly cited, paraphrasing is beneficial because it engages your brain and requires you to understand what you have read or heard so that you can rephrase it. Paraphrasing is more often used in professional writing, so knowing how to paraphrase can help prepare you for your career. While paraphrasing might be difficult at first, once you practice it, it will become easier and benefit you in the future.
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