11 Ways on How to Avoid Plagiarism? The Ultimate Guide
Do you always struggle looking for acceptable ways to avoid plagiarism? Plagiarism is the act of deliberately representing someone else’s work as your own. This can happen in several ways and is especially common when writing a paper, thesis, or essay for class.
But what do you do when you’re stuck on how to avoid plagiarism? Read this article for tips and tricks to keep from being accused of plagiarizing. Different types of assignments require different approaches to avoid plagiarism.
Understanding which type of assignment you have, and what your professor is looking for will help you to not only understand how to avoid plagiarism but also see why it’s so important in the first place. Let’s take a look at some common ways that people get accused of plagiarism and some helpful tips on how to avoid it.
1. Summarizing and Paraphrasing
Summarizing and paraphrasing are often confused with plagiarism. While plagiarism is the act of representing someone else’s work as your own, summarizing and paraphrasing are perfectly acceptable and encouraged ways to represent another person’s work.
Summarizing is taking a large collection of information and condensing it into a smaller, coherent piece. Paraphrasing is taking a piece of information (usually a sentence or two) and rewording it in your own words. When writing any type of paper—whether it’s an essay, a research paper, or a book report—it’s highly likely that you’ll need to summarize or paraphrase information from one or more sources.
When summarizing, you are simply taking key points and ideas from a source and writing out a short overview of them in your own words. When paraphrasing, you are rewriting a source using your own words. This requires you to cite the source you are paraphrasing from in the original language in order to avoid plagiarism.
The important thing to remember with summarizing and paraphrasing is that you are not copying word for word. You are taking key points and ideas from a source and re-writing them in your own words.
2. Quoting with a Citation
Quoting is the act of taking a passage from a source, both rewording and reordering it, and placing it in your work with a citation that indicates the source of the material. When we talk about how to avoid plagiarism, we’re really talking about how to avoid accidentally misrepresenting another person’s work as your own.
Accidentally misrepresenting someone else’s work by using their exact words as if they were your own is plagiarism. Quoting is a great way to represent someone else’s work without accidentally plagiarizing it. It’s important to cite the source of the material when you quote it, as well.
There are two types of citations: in-text citations and a bibliography or references list at the end of your paper. Both in-text citations and a bibliography provide readers with more information about the source you used in your paper. Your professor may have a specific citation format that you need to use, or you may have the option to use the general citation format. You can find a list of citation formats here.
3. Using a Direct Quote
Sometimes as you’re writing, you’ll come across words or phrases that are so beautiful, so thought-provoking, or so concise that you just have to include them in your paper. When you’re writing a paper for a college class, it’s important to remember that this is actually plagiarism.
In order to avoid plagiarism, you’ll want to avoid using direct quotes if you can. If you absolutely must use a direct quote, try to paraphrase it as best you can.
Direct quotes are exactly what they sound like: you are writing down the exact words of a source in your paper. While this is fine when writing a paper and avoiding plagiarism, it is not recommended for other types of writing. When writing a paper, you want to make sure to cite your exact quote in your paper a citation.
Because a direct quote is the exact words of the source, you do not need to provide an in-text citation. Instead, the citation should appear in the bibliography or reference section at the end of your paper. You should only use a direct quote when writing papers. Avoid using direct quotes whenever possible when writing other types of writing.
4. Preserving the Original Language
Sometimes when you’re summarizing or paraphrasing a source, the language just doesn’t flow as nicely as it does in the original source. In these cases, you might want to consider trying to preserve the original language as best you can. When you paraphrase or summarize a source, you’ll need to use your own words. However, when you’re quoting a source, you don’t need to use your own words.
However, there are many resources and excerpts (especially in the humanities) that are written in a language other than your native tongue. In these situations, you need to preserve the original language but also make sure your paper is legible to your audience.
You can do this by using a language-translation tool, such as Google Translate, or a dictionary. Even if you do use a translation tool, make sure you are also reading your paper out loud. This will help you catch mistakes that a translation tool might miss.
5. Avoiding Big Words that You don’t Understand
Transitions such as however and nevertheless, conjunctions such as and or, and words such as wherein and herewith are often used in academic writing. However, if you don’t understand the meaning of these words or any other big, fancy words in a source, you’re probably better off just avoiding them altogether.
Avoiding big words that you don’t understand will help you to avoid accidentally using them in your paper without realizing it. This can cause you to accidentally plagiarize a source without realizing it.
If you are not sure what the word means, it’s best not to use it. When referencing a resource, you can also use your word processor’s built-in dictionary to find out more about a word. The dictionary will provide you with the word’s meaning, its part of speech, and its etymology. You should avoid using big words when writing a paper or thesis that you don’t fully understand.
6. Double-Check the Resources You’re Using
It’s easy to accidentally plagiarize a source if you’re not paying close attention to what you’re putting your name on. Let’s say you’re using the MLA format to cite your sources and looking for a source for your paper. You go to Google Scholar and search for a source.
To find the source, you have to click on the PDF and then scroll down to find the citation. Next, copy and paste the citation into your paper. You’ve now successfully represented another person’s work as your own.
If you are not absolutely sure that a paper or thesis you are writing is your own work, then you need to double-check your sources. You can do this by writing down each source you are using and a brief summary of what it is. Checking your sources also means that you are familiar with the information in them. You should know where the information came from, when it was published (or written), and what it is trying to say.
Some professors will ask you to number your sources and include them in your paper. This allows readers to easily reference the source for more information. You can use a word processor or a notebook to write down your sources. Whichever method you choose, make sure to check your sources and make sure they are original work.
7. Use a grammar checking tool
Grammar checking tools are great for making sure that you’re using proper English in your paper. However, they aren’t always so great at detecting plagiarized sentences.
Using a grammar checking tool can help you to avoid accidentally plagiarizing a source, but it probably won’t alert you if you accidentally use the source word for word. If you want to avoid plagiarism, you’ll want to use a different tool.
Any grammar checking tool can only identify parts of your work that are plagiarized. It cannot tell you if anything in your paper is unoriginal. Grammar checking tools can catch most plagiarism, but not everything. They will pick up on certain words and phrases that are commonly used but don’t actually mean anything.
A grammar checking tool will also not catch awkward sentences or misspellings. You should still read through your paper after using a grammar checking tool. Make sure all of your sentences are correct and that your paper makes sense.
8. Don’t Rely on Computer Tools Alone
Computer tools such as anti-plagiarism software can definitely help you to avoid accidentally plagiarizing a source. However, they can sometimes be a little too aggressive and will mark you as having plagiarized even when you haven’t.
If you’re worried about plagiarism, you should definitely use anti-plagiarism software. However, you should also be on the lookout for false positives that the software might throw at you.
When writing, you should always have a paper journal. This is a notebook where you write down every resource you use. You should also write down any thoughts or ideas that you are re-writing or paraphrasing from another source. You should be absolutely sure that you are not accidentally plagiarizing your work by double-checking your sources, re-reading your paper, and writing down your sources.
9. Turn in your work early
Next, let’s talk about turning in your work early. You need to give yourself enough time to read through your paper several times and make sure it is your own work. Many students wait until the last minute to write their papers, but this can actually make you more likely to accidentally plagiarize a source. This is a recipe for disaster.
When you’re rushing to finish a paper, you’re probably going to be relying on sources more heavily. This is when you’re most likely to accidentally plagiarize a source. By turning in your work early, you give yourself time to re-read your work and make sure that everything is original and error-free.
10. Summing up Your Source while Retaining Meaning
If you can’t avoid using a direct quote in your paper, try to sum up the source as best you can. This will help you avoid accidentally plagiarizing a source without fully paraphrasing or summarizing the source. If you’re summarizing or paraphrasing a source, try to summarize or paraphrase while retaining as much meaning as possible.
This will help you avoid accidentally plagiarizing without having to use your own words. If you’re using a direct quote, try to summarize the quotation as best you can before including the quotation in your paper. This will allow you to use the exact words from the source without accidentally plagiarizing it.
11. Using your own words and a citation
Finally, let’s look at using your own words and a citation. This is a great way to avoid plagiarism when writing a thesis or a paper, but it does require you to have read and understood your source.
When writing your paper, you want to make sure that you are using your own words. However, it’s also important that you cite your source so that readers know the original source of your ideas.
Sometimes you just can’t avoid using a direct quote in your paper. If this is the case, you’ll want to make sure that you’re also including a citation. This will help you avoid accidentally plagiarizing a source without having to paraphrase or summarize it.
Depending on what type of citation you use, you might also be able to summarize or paraphrase the source.
Summing up
At the end of the day, avoiding plagiarism comes down to one thing: originality. If you put in the hard work to write an essay or paper using your own words, you’ll be less likely to accidentally plagiarize a source. You can avoid plagiarism by avoiding big words that you don’t understand, double-checking the sources you’re using, using a grammar checking tool, and relying on computer tools alone. When it comes to avoiding plagiarism, you can never be too careful.
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