Plagiarism is defined as using someone else’s words or ideas without crediting the original author. However few times plagiarism includes deliberately stealing someone’s work, but often it happens accidentally, through carelessness or forgetfulness. While writing an academic paper, it is important to build upon the work of others and use different sources for evidence and information. For avoiding plagiarism, it is important to correctly incorporate the sources into your text. For avoiding plagiarism, one must provide a reference to that source to indicate where the original information came from. There are various ways for avoiding plagiarism, which involve good time management, developing good research habits, and taking responsibility for your own learning.
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A few tips for avoiding plagiarism are
Avoiding procrastination with the research and assignments.
Good research requires time. Procrastinating leads to difficulty in managing time and there are high chances that the person might feel unduly pressured to finish the work. This sort of pressure can often lead to bad decisions and sloppy research habits. Thus it is important to Plan your research well in advance, and take help when needed from your professor, librarians, and other campus support staff so that the chances of giving plagiarized work are reduced.
Being 100% scrupulous in your note taking
One good practice is to clearly label in your notes your own ideas (write "ME" in parentheses) and ideas and words from others (write "JONAS, 2015" or something to indicate author, source, and source date). It is important to Keep good records of the sources you consult, and the ideas you take from them. Paraphrasing the contents in yours own words without losing the quality of the content is important. If you're writing a paper, you'll need this information for your bibliographies or references cited list anyway, so you'll benefit from good organization from the beginning.
Commit to work.
In case the assignment is difficult to understand, talk with your professor. Don't take the "easy way" out by asking your roommate or friends for copies of old assignments. Group projects are very popular in some classes on campus, but not all. Make sure you clearly understand when your professor says it's okay to work with others on assignments and submit group work on assignments, versus when assignments and papers need to represent your own work.
Cite your sources scrupulously
Regardless of whether you found the information in a book, article, or website, and whether it's text, a graphic, an illustration, chart or table, you need to cite it. When you use words or phrases from other sources, these need to be in quotes. Current style manuals are available at most reference desks and online. They may also give further advice on avoiding plagiarism. Every time you quote or paraphrase, you must include an in-text or footnote citation clearly identifying the original author. Each citation must correspond to a full reference in the reference list or bibliography at the end of your paper. This acknowledges the source of your information, avoiding plagiarism, and it helps your readers locate the source for themselves if they would like to learn more. There are many different citation styles, each with its own rules. A few common styles are APA, MLA, and Chicago. Your instructor may assign a particular style for you to use, or you may be able to choose. The most important thing is to apply one style consistently throughout the text.
Understand good paraphrasing.
Simply using synonyms or scrambling an author's words and phrases and then using these "rewrites" uncredited in your work is plagiarism, plain and simple.. Good paraphrasing also requires that you cite the original source. Anything less and you veer into the dangerous territory of plagiarism." Good paraphrasing requires that you genuinely understand the original source, that you are genuinely using your own words to summarize a point or concept, and that you insert in quotes any unique words or phrases you use from the original source.
Managing sources with the Scribbr Citation Generator
To make your life easier later, make sure to write down the full details of every source you consult. That includes not only books and journal articles, but also things like websites, magazine articles, and videos. This makes it easy to go back and check where you found a phrase, fact, or idea that you want to use in your paper.
MyAssignmenthelp’s Citation Generator allows you to start building and managing your reference list as you go, saving time later. When you’re ready to submit, simply download your reference list!
Avoiding plagiarism when quoting
Quoting means copying a piece of text word for word. The copied text must be introduced in your own words, enclosed in quotation marks, and correctly attributed to the original author.In general, quote sparingly. Quotes are appropriate when You’re using an exact definition, introduced by the original author. It is impossible for you to rephrase the original text without losing its meaning. You’re analyzing the use of language in the original text. You want to maintain the authority and style of the author’s words
Using a plagiarism checker
Most universities use plagiarism checkers to detect potential plagiarism. Plagiarism checkers work by scanning your document, comparing it to a database of webpages and publications, and highlighting passages that appear similar to other texts. Consider using a plagiarism checker yourself before submitting your paper. This allows you to identify issues that could constitute accidental plagiarism, such as Forgotten or misplaced citations, Missing quotation marks, and Paraphrased material that’s too similar to the original text. Then you can easily fix any instances of potential plagiarism.
Keeping track of your sources
One of the most common ways that students commit plagiarism is by simply forgetting where an idea came from and unintentionally presenting it as their own. You can easily avoid this pitfall by keeping your notes organized and compiling a list of citations as you go. Clearly, a label which thoughts are yours and which aren’t in your notes, highlight statements that need citations, and carefully mark any text copied directly from a source with quotation marks.
Others
Other steps that can be taken to ensure your paper is free from plagiarism include Keeping the track of the sources you consult in your research, Paraphrasing or quoting from your sources, Crediting the original author in an in-text citation and reference list, and Using a plagiarism checker before you submit.
