WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
As mentioned earlier, referencing is respectful acknowledgment of the contribution of other scholars. When you use their ideas in your own work, you must cite the source of that work with the name of the original author; otherwise, it is tantamount to literary theft. This dishonesty is called plagiarism. It is legally and morally unacceptable. Most institutions have a software to check students’ thesis for plagiarism. If parts of it are found to have been plagiarized, the thesis can be rejected. Institutions vary on the percentage of plagiarism that is permissible.
Merriam-Webster online dictionary 2017 defines plagiarize as follows: