In the Mcdougal Littell text, Writing for Social Studies it defines plagiarism as "the act of intentionally or unintentionally presenting work done by someone else as though it were your own." (71)

A couple of common questions posed by the writer-researcher may act as a guide in determining whether the information is plagiarized:

• Is the information common knowledge?
• Did the information come from someone other than myself?

If the information is not common knowledge and did come from an outside source then it must be cited. For additional information on plagiarism see J.B. Owens site at http://www.isu.edu/~owenjack/plag.html