According to RCTC’s Student Conduct and Academic Dishonesty
(MnSCU Policy 3.6 and RCTC Policy 3.6), Section 2: Academic Honesty, plagiarism is defined as

representing another person’s words or ideas as one’s own without proper attribution or credit. Other people’s words or ideas must be given adequate documentation whether used in direct quotation or in summary or paraphrase. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, quoting written or oral materials without citation on an exam, term paper, homework, or other written materials or oral presentations for an academic requirements; submitting a paper purchased from a term paper service as one’s own; submitting anyone else’s work as one’s own. Any form of plagiarism constitutes an act of cheating.

Consequences

The consequences for plagiarism at RCTC include reprimand, additional coursework, reexamination, a lowered grade for the plagiarized assignment, a lowered grade for the course, failure or dismissal from the course. The consequences are the discretion of individual RCTC instructors.

You may access the full RCTC policy at:
http://www.rctc.edu/policies/education/Student_Conduct_Dishonesty.html

How to Avoid Plagiarism

For further information on how to effectively quote, summarize, paraphrase and to avoid plagiarism in general, feel free to visit the links to Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (see below for links to the site).

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_quotprsum.html
This handout helps writers differentiate between paraphrasing, summarizing and using direct quotations. Practice exercises are available.

Avoiding Plagiarism
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html
This handout will help writers clearly define and avoid accidental plagiarism.

Paraphrase: Write it in Your Own Words
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_paraphr.html
This handout provides definitions and exercises to help writers learn more about paraphrasing.