Plagiarism is considered to be one of the most serious violations of the academic writing and may have serious consequences for any student. Therefore, while writing an essay, you need to be very careful and should have enough knowledge on it. So here, let us explore some of the basics about plagiarism and how to prevent it.
Few basics about Plagiarism you need to know about
Plagiarism is to pass of and steal words or ideas of another person to be used without giving credit to the original source. Plagiarism may be any of the following.
- “Paraphrasing” too much closely to original text
- Not attributing the quote to author properly using appropriate style guide
- Using someone else’s quote without the use of quotation marks
- Copying anyone else’s work entirely right from start to finish
Plagiarism can only kill your grades even if you have committed it accidently. Someone’s ideas and writings are considered to be intellectual property. So, re-using that writing or idea without any attribution can be termed as stealing. It is definitely illegal and it has such similar repercussions.
Top Methods to Avoid Plagiarism
Now that you know what plagiarism is and its basics as well, it is now time to see what you can do to prevent it. There are several options to prevent it that includes the following.
- Citing sources
With the help of the style guide that your instructor told you to use, make sure to include all the sources that you have used so far to construct your research paper or argument. You will need to include full and in-text citations as well. If you don’t include any and used a source which is not listed, it is plagiarism.
- Paraphrasing
While writing any research paper, you may end up with a lot of paraphrasing. Once all the sources have been collected, you will likely use information that you learned to draw conclusions about the topic you have chosen.
Paraphrasing is like summarizing, but rather than condensing information in source, you will just reword that information. It should even be remembered that you cannot paraphrase your entire essay. You will likely have to intertwine your ideas with those ideas that are presented in the source material that you are using.
- Using quotation marks
Another way to avoid plagiarism is using quotation marks. This method is very straightforward, but you will need to have a proper idea on when and where to use it. For instance, you should know how much of some particular sentence you will need to quote.
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