Except under very limited circumstances, such copying is plagiarism, and it is not okay.

To be fair, people who copy from websites probably don’t know they are doing anything wrong. After all, you often find exactly the same content on multiple websites. It seems to be common practice.

Common it may be, but that doesn’t make it right. [Insert whatever your mother used to say about what “everyone else” was doing. It probably had to do with jumping off a bridge or a cliff.]

So what do you do instead? We all go to the web for ideas and evidence. If we can’t copy and paste, what can we do? One of five things.

1. Link

If you want to use a big chunk of the original in your own webpage, link to the original instead of copying it.

(If you wanted to copy the article so you wouldn’t have to write one of your own, just don’t. Write it yourself or hire someone to write it for you.)

2. Get permission

If you want to use a big chunk of the original piece, try e-mailing the writer or web owner to ask for permission. Some copyright holders will allow you to use some of their material as long as you’re not going to make money from it.

Few copyright owners will grant permission to use a complete piece – not for free, anyway. This fact puts most media – images, music, video – off limits.

But there are many sites that offer royalty-free media for free or at a modest cost. I use a stock photo site that offers images for $1 apiece. Many other media are available under Creative Commons licenses. Just be sure to follow the terms of the license.

If the material doesn’t explicitly say that it’s free for you to use, it isn’t.

3. Quote

If you want to use just a phrase or a few sentences, put the exact words in quotation marks and give appropriate credit:

• For a formal report, use your style manual, such as APA or MLA.
• For a webpage, link to the original.
• For most other kinds of writing, include source information in text or in parentheses: “As Henrietta Author says in ‘Confessions of a Reformed Plagiarist’ (Henrietta’s Blog, May 9, 2014)….”

However, unless the words you want to quote are really juicy, consider using the next option instead.

4. Rewrite

There’s hardly any deathless prose running around the Internet. Usually what your own document needs from your research is the ideas, not the words. In that case, write a paraphrase.

Paraphrasing is expressing someone else’s idea in your own words – all your own words. The old middle-school trick of substituting synonyms here and there doesn’t cut it.

Instead, put aside the original, and think about your own document. What point are you making, and how will the material you found help you make it?

Write that. Then look back at the original to make sure your paraphrase is completely different, in both wording and sentence structure. If it isn’t, start over.

5. Variations on the above

I’ve barely scratched the surface of how to avoid inadvertent plagiarism. I don’t have room to tell you all the tricks I know. Why don’t you email me your question or conundrum?