“If you steal from one author its plagiarism; if you steal from many its research.”
~ Wilson Mizner
Plagiarism in known as an act of using someone else’s words or ideas without properly giving credit to the original author. Coming up with all the information regarding your paper is not a piece of cake. It sometimes leads to deliberately stealing someone’s work, but it is often done accidently due to forgetfulness and carelessness.
However, plagiarism is a serious offence and it can result in your being ineligible. But no one wants it hours of efforts to go in vain. So when you write your academic paper, make sure you build it upon the work of others and use various sources and evidence in order to avoid plagiarism. To make it more comprehensible for you, we have made a list of 6 step easy guide that will help every student.
Properly Cite Sources
One of the key aspects on how to avoid plagiarism is doing proper citation. When you are adding an idea or wording that is not your own, then you must add an in-text citation that identifies the full name of the source. For instance, the date it was published or any other citation element that’s required by the style guide you are practicing in your paper. The other thing that you need to keep in mind is to do it correctly, as in case it’s not done in the right way it will not have any importance.
Properly Quote and Paraphrase
Quoting and Paraphrasing is also one of the steps to avoid plagiarism. Like if you are using the exact wording of some other author, remember to put it in quotations. It won’t require much time and you can do it as soon as you write the wordings. As soon as you quote your reference, you would be safe from the accusation of plagiarism. Paraphrasing is a way in which you want to use someone else work but still credit where it is needed. It is done when you reword a sentence without changing its meaning. Even after rephrasing citation is necessary as you are still using someone else’s idea, so including the source is necessary.
Proofread
Even if you have been citing papers from years and have a vast experience. Proofreading is a requirement and it will help you in your plagiarism. It wouldn’t take much time and going through your paper will help you in finding that if there is any idea that you have forgotten to cite or make sure that you have cited every source you have taken help from. This is one of the step that is easy to do and gives results.
Present your own idea
Come up with what you have to say about a particular topic instead of just citing and parroting other sources. Ask yourself what unique opinion or point you can contribute in your writing that is entirely yours. In case you are giving your point on the basis of sources, make sure that you are using the ways told to avoid plagiarism. This is a one of the significant way on how to avoid plagiarism in 6 easy steps. If you are writing on the same topic multiple times, it can tempting to recycle your own thoughts, this is known as “self-plagiarism”. However, the only risk that lies in self-plagiarism is that your instructor or publisher don’t allows you to use your work again.
Plagiarism Checker
It happens sometimes while conducting your research some phrases or sentences on a particular topic stick to the mind that you unintentionally use them without citing them. So in order to avoid such situations, it is always best to use a plagiarism checker that is capable of scanning your text for borrowed content for free. For example, all the assignment that are written by EssayMills are checked through a plagiarism checker, so that the work is authentic and up to the mark. You can also use the same strategy to come up with the best version of work.
Reference Page
As you add your in-text citation, make sure to make a reference page simultaneously. As it another way to avoid plagiarism from your work. All your need to do is take the record of the sources you have taken help from and add the sources in the last page of the paper. Just do not try to do when you are done with the research as it could lead to a situation that you would miss something important. Moreover, the list should be made on the same type of referencing done in the paper i.e. APA, Harvard, and Oxford etc.
Till now you must have got the idea that what were the things that were lacking in your previous academic papers and what ways you can opt to avoid them. We hope these suggestions can be helpful for you in avoiding the plagiarism in your work and all the effort is worth doing. Also to be more aware of what constitutes plagiarism and figuring out how to avoid it ultimately needs everyday practice. So keep practicing and keep citing, in order to come up with the research that is worth publishing.
