A common form of plagiarism is putting someone else's ideas into your own words and not acknowledging the source of the ideas.
Original
"The complexity of the current global economy has to do with certain fundamental disjunctures between economy, culture and politics which we have barely begun to theorise" (Appadurai 1999, p. 221).
Plagiarised
The world economic system is marked by economic, cultural and political tensions that are yet to be fully understood.
Acceptable Version
The world economic system is marked by economic, cultural and political tensions that are yet to be fully understood (Appadurai 1999, p. 221).
Why is it acceptable?
- In-text citation indicates the source of this viewpoint: this is necessary even though the student has 'translated the original into his/ her own words.
Better
Political, economic and cultural tensions, at best partially understood, mark the world economic system (Appadurai 1999, p. 221).
Why is it better?
- A better paraphrase. Changes the sentence structure and order of information.
- Succinct and economical - a nice turn of phrase!