Very often, the purpose of academic writing is to build on and react to the knowledge of previous scholars. However, it is important to distinguish own original thought, from the ideas, theories, and concepts that have come from other writers.
If a student includes content from another author and does not cite the source of our information, if they ask or pay someone else to write a paper for them, or if a student submits the same paper for academic credit in two different courses, they will face a charge of plagiarism. This is an offense that the university takes very seriously.
This 2014 Youtube video was created by the University of Alberta. Featuring Edmonton rappers Mitchmatic and Mikey Maybe, it weaves together quotations from pop culture & literary sources -- and cites them, showing you where they're originally from. See their other videos as well, Acceptable/Unacceptable and Cheating.