I am working on a song lyric quiz. If I directly quote the lyrics and put them in quotations, does that still count as plagiarism? I know this can be a slippery slope at times and I want to be careful.

Definitely not. As long as you use quotation marks in the proper places, and say somewhere (either in the question, interesting information, etc.) who the artist is, it's okay. You can (and usually should) give more info in the Interesting Information, such as what year it was recorded, what album it was on, etc.

From the Music category guidelines:

Quote:

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Although we allow you to quote song lyrics in your interesting info, please don't *only* use lyrics. Please tell us something more about the song (for example: who wrote it, what was the video like, was it used in any soundtracks, how it did in the charts, is there anything interesting musically about it). Or, if you prefer, tell us something about the artist. Keep quoted lyrics to a reasonable length - one verse or four to five lines. Quizzes with very repetitive and minimal interesting info ("This song is from 'Xxxx' album" for every question, say) may be rejected.

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Have a look at some of the better rated lyrics quizzes already online, too, for a guideline on how to quote the lyrics and what kind of information to give.

A rule of thumb that I use:

If you use another's words in a way that suggests that they are your own then you are guilty of plagiarism. By failing enclose the words in quotation marks and to attribute then you are implying the words are your own.

Martin