In my years of writing in three different fields of study in a variety of different capacities, one rule seems to stand above the rest, more than the inconsistent rulings about Oxford commas and the wishy-washy opinions on passive voice in psychological research papers that make other writers give them the saltiest of side eyes. This one takes the cake by far.

Don't steal someone else's work and call it your own.

It sounds simple enough, right? It's at the end of nearly every syllabus and emphasized in pretty much every class where you have to write something. Of course, you don't plagiarize. Even most rookie writers don't make that mistake.

Yet, Melania Trump's speech writer Meredith McIver was somehow able to mess that up.

In the speech, the hopeful First Lady spoke to the Republican National Convention crowd, saying, "From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life: that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life.” Indeed, for many individuals, regardless of party affiliation, these core values are at the base of their aspirations, political or otherwise.

The thing is, though, it sounded eerily similar to current First Lady Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention speech. Here is the section McIver and, in turn, Trump purportedly copied: "Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values — like you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them."

In both quotations, I emboldened the potentially cribbed parts. For about 21 words, you see that Trump used the exact same phrasing as Obama did eight years ago. Of course, a similarity is to be expected when, as the first article mentions, Trump drew inspiration from the Obama speech. But 21 words is enough to set off a flag seen in assignment software like Turnitin and Safe Assign. But more on that in a bit.

McIver has since taken fault for the situation and apologized for what she refers to as a mistake that occurred when drafting the speech and not checking Obama's speech, but the damage had been done in many news outlets. Donald Trump's presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort and spokesperson Katrina Pierson both came to McIver and Melania Trump's defense, both making similar claims that the aforementioned words and values are commonplace in the human vernacular.

Here is where the whole situation might get muddy. Take a look on the Plagiarism.org Glossary page and scroll down to the heading "Common Knowledge." In short, readily available information from various sources does not need citing. As both Manafort and Pierson said in separate interviews, values such as hard work, respect and consistency between word and action are present in many life experiences. Plus, many sites noted that a similar occurrence happened in Obama's 2008 DNC speech. But, as that attached Snopes article in the last sentence mentions toward the end of the piece, the surface similarities were not revealing of a cribbed concept. Context is key, especially in this specific context.

With those ideas in mind, we come back to the concept of plagiarism in Melania Trump's speech and, in the grand scheme of things, what is and isn't plagiarism. On one side, there is the argument that the hard work, etc., statement comes from a place of theoretical common knowledge and common parental practice that needs no citation—especially since Melania is referring specifically to her family and her childhood. On another side, there's the argument that, contextually, she was saying the exact same thing as Obama and should at least throw some form of mention into her DNC speech in there. Then there's the camp of individuals, like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, that thinks that a 93 percent difference is not grounds for plagiarism.

So what are the percentage totals that signal it's plagiarism? That's not so clear cut. Some sources say that a 3 percent difference is a good indicator for potential copying, while others put the range between 15 percent and 25 percent. But the one thing to take into account, especially in those last two document links, is that copied percentage estimates that could probably indicate plagiarism. The general consensus is to look at the piece in question and see how much of it is plagiarized and/or improperly paraphrased or cited.

So did Melania Trump plagiarize Michelle Obama? Not completely, but completely enough to set off a red flag in the speech. In the world of copyright and intellectual property, though, it's enough to round up to something serious. Better wording or some basic attribution would have saved her some flak—maybe even something as simple and noncommittal as "My parents, like many others, raised their children to be respectful, hard working and consistent with what they do and what they say." Without it, though, it's plagiarism.

But don't quote me on that.

For more information on the ins and outs of proper citation, visit Plagiarism.org (not a sponsor).