Plagiarism of content is the failure to cite a summary, paraphrase, or direct quotation; failure to put a direct quoatation in quotation marks; and failure to keep summaries and paraphrases in your own words.
A summary is the condensed information from an original source. For example, a summary of a three-paragraph section may be condensed into one or two sentences. A summary should not repeat any specific words or phrases unless they are placed into quotation marks and cited separately. Summaries are always cited.
A paraphrase uses roughly the same amount of words as the original source. It should not repeat any specific words or phrases, and it should not order elements in the same fashion as the original (see plagiarism of structure). Paraphrases are always cited.
Any direct word-for-word use of any of the author's original language must be placed within quotation marks and properly cited.