How to Avoid Plagiarism
Academic writing is based on the work of others and often uses information and evidence from more than one source. But it’s usually not hard to find research materials and information. The most difficult part is putting the information into your writing without plagiarizing. To plagiarize just means to take someone else’s work and ideas and pass them off as your own without giving credit where credit is due.
Plagiarism, whether it’s done on purpose or by accident, is a serious ethical violation in academics that can lead to serious consequences like retracted papers, ruined reputations, and even getting kicked out of school if you’re still in school. To avoid plagiarism, you need to know how to use these sources correctly in your paper.
Here are four important tips that will help you write papers that don’t have any copied text.
1. Paraphrase
To paraphrase means to use your own words to say what someone else has said. To do this, you must first read the information and make sure you understand it. Then, you must put the information into your own words without changing what it means.
2. Quote
You could also quote the information exactly as it is written. But when you quote, you have to use quotation marks to show where the quote starts and stops.
3. Give proper credit to your sources.
Citing means giving credit to the original source of any information, ideas, or inspiration you use. This is true whether or not you have used quotation marks or paraphrased to bring in evidence from outside sources. These sources must be cited in the text and in a separate list of references that goes at the end of your paper on a separate page. Also, the citation has to follow the institution’s guidelines for how to format a document.
4. Use a tool to check for plagiarism.
No matter how sure you are of your writing skills, you can’t ignore how important it is to check for plagiarism. During your research on a certain topic, you might use the same phrases so often that you forget to cite them. In this situation, a plagiarism checker will be helpful. There are many good tools for checking for plagiarism online, like Turnitin, where you can put your paper to make sure it is original. These checkers can quickly read through your text and find even the smallest bit of plagiarism.
Plagiarism is a trap that anyone can fall into. Plagiarism is hard to avoid, and learning how to do so takes time and practice. The first step is to learn about the different kinds of plagiarism and what counts as plagiarism and what doesn’t. These, along with the tips above, will help you write papers that are free of plagiarism and show integrity and skill.
References
“Beyond Culture: How to Help International Students Avoid Plagiarism,” by Soni Adhikari. Journal of International Students, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2018: pp. 375–388.
“Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct: A Systematic Review,” written by Shipra Awasthi. DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology, Vol. 39, No. 2 (2019).
Nimasari, Elok Putri. “How do college freshmen avoid plagiarism?” Paul Robertson is the chief editor (2018).
