Plagiarism comes in many forms, some more severe than others—from rephrasing someone’s ideas without acknowledgement to stealing a whole essay. These are the five most common types of plagiarism:

• Global plagiarism means passing off an entire text by someone else as your own work.

• Verbatim plagiarism means directly copying someone else’s words.

• Paraphrasing plagiarism means rephrasing someone else’s ideas to present them as your own.

• Patchwork plagiarism means stitching together parts of different sources to create your text.

• Self-plagiarism means recycling your own past work.

Except for global plagiarism, these types of plagiarism are often accidental, resulting from failure to understand how to properly quote, paraphrase, and cite your sources. If you’re concerned about accidental plagiarism, a plagiarism checker can help.