More common than outright plagiarism, students "patch together" thoughts in a recognizable form of writing known as "patchwriting." Instead of synthesizing one's own thoughts and writing original sentences, pieces and phrases of others' work are pieced together. Read more in this Poynter Institute article, "'Patchwriting' is more common than plagiarism, just as dishonest."
Whether students mean to plagiarize or not, the consequences of an author's words or phrasing appearing in your work can mean a failing grade on your paper, a failing grade in a class or expulsion from college.
To avoid any of these, keep careful track of where you find your sources and quotes. Use index cards or a Google doc. It doesn't matter how you keep words and ideas next to the author's name, the title of the work and page numbers.
It is still plagiarism to copy a passage and change adjectives and verbs using synonyms. This type of plagiarism is called "synonymizing" or "text laundering." Of course, there is software available to "synonymize" a paper - for a fee. Here's an example Jonathan Bailey used on his website Plagiarism Today (November 2005):
Original quote: "To be, or not to be. That is the question." Hamlet, William Shakespeare. ca. 1600.
Synonymized quote: “To exist, or not to exist, that is the query." Bailey, Jonathan. “Synonymized Plagiarism: A New Threat.” Plagiarism Today, 5 Dec. 2005, www.plagiarismtoday.com/2005/12/05/
synonymized-plagiarism-a-new-threat/.
Plagiarism checkers are prepared to catch synonymizing also. Read this webpage on Plagiarismcheck.org to read the exhausting lengths some people will go to to avoid writing their original thoughts. Note that plagiarism checkers also read Quora posts giving students instructions on how to commit this type of plagiarism.
