Plagiarism is masquerading another's ideas as your own. Using a single source almost always leads to this situation (unless you creatively reinterpret the single source (==original research!)). You can be plagiaristic while crediting the work you're plagiarising - depends how the referencing is done.

If I were to restate a philosopher's critique without incorporating other critiques or constantly reminding the reader that the critique is not my own (e.g. "Dennett then goes on to state..."), I risk plagiarism. This is the case even if I reference the philosopher (here Dennett) at the end of the essay.

-- Oldak Quill (oldakquill@gmail.com)

Not if you candidly credit your source for each significant fact or assertion contained in your article. Just a footnote at the end would not suffice. We expect every significant fact or assertion to be verifiable by reverence to a reliable source. You may have written a poor article, but you have not plagiarized.

Fred