Tips to Avoid Plagiarism in your Academic and Professional Work

Tips to Avoid Plagiarism in your Academic and Professional Work

Plagiarism has become a major problem these days in many creative works, research projects, and academic assignments. If your content is plagiarized, it can leave a bad impression of your work in the minds of people, impacting your reputation in your network. If you are doing it for your research papers or academic papers, you may fail to fetch good marks in the subject and even fail. So, it is advisable that you avoid plagiarism in your work.

You can avoid plagiarism only when you have good writing skills. But many times, you are bound to copy certain information, and due to the lack of scope within the information, you struggle to paraphrase it or rewrite it in your own words. This mostly happens when subject-specific terms are used. However, there are ways to avoid it by either giving citations or including source references for the information.

In this blog, we have shared some tips on how to avoid plagiarism.

Avoiding plagiarism requires good writing skills. Although extensive advice on writing skills is beyond the scope of this module, below you will find some writing tips to help you get started on the right track.

Also Read : How To Write Appendices?

Learn what plagiarism is

Before you think of avoiding plagiarism, it is necessary to learn what plagiarism is and on what basis your content can be called plagiarized content. Find out how to detect plagiarism. You will find several online tools to check for plagiarized content.

Learn ‌writing principles

A good writer does not need to plagiarize. Therefore, it is important to learn the principles of writing first. One with ‌a flair for writing already possesses all the necessary skills to express their ideas in their ‌own words. People with poor writing skills most of the time end up becoming prey to involuntary plagiarism. So, increase your vocabulary, read more and more different types of journals and books, learn how they express themselves, learn how to paraphrase, and do not compromise on your grammar lessons.

Cite your content source

Citation is very important if you are using somebody’s content directly in your work. When you use other people’s content or ideas in your work, make sure you have cited the source document. Also, learn the correct format for citing sources. Choose a citation style (like APA, MLA, or Chicago), whichever is appropriate for your profession or work, and train yourself with it properly. You can check for citation examples in journals that are specific to your profession or discipline.

Do not assume about common knowledge

Do not make assumptions about everything. It is not necessary that what you know is “common knowledge” and known to everyone; often it is not. However, you will need to cite certain things that are “common knowledge” according to you. Additionally, when you use citations taken from secondary sources, it is important to be sure that those citations do exist. Also, you should be aware of the message conveyed in those sources to avoid representing some other person’s misinterpretation.

Make use of quotations

Many times while paraphrasing content, you keep words or phrases intact that you have obtained from another source. These words or phrases look similar to those in the source. In such cases, it is preferable to highlight such words or phrases within quotes. Either you write the entire thing in your own words or keep it as is and include quotation marks. If the content is the‌ exclusive idea of the individual, you will be required to include quotations. You should decide on this.

Also Read : How To Reference Paraphrasing?

Paraphrase after you copy

Learn how to paraphrase content that you pick from other sources in your own words. Once you have finished reading something from some source, keep it away from you and start writing in your own words. Once done, match and compare both to see if what you wrote is the same as what you read before in the source document. Meaning should not change. Then you can improve your writing further.

Do not misinterpret

While paraphrasing a source’s content do not misinterpret or manipulate it to suit your requirements. Also, the intent of the content should not change in the process of writing. This should be followed not only in the text, but also in images, graphs, charts, music, and video.

Take permission from the author

When you obtain a large part of somebody’s writing to use in your work, make sure you give them due credit in your writing. Also, before you make use of their work, do not forget to ask for permission from the authors.

Present your own ideas

Try to present your ideas on any topic. Even if you take information from other sources, ensure you have added your own thoughts to it. If you present your own ideas, there will be no question of plagiarism.

Use a plagiarism checker

Once you have completed your writing, use a plagiarism checker to detect whether your content shows any plagiarism. If you have followed all the above rules, then you need not worry about plagiarism. But, if by any chance you still find some percentage of plagiarism, ensure you make modifications before submitting.

Take help from your instructor

Do not hesitate to ask for help from your seniors or your instructor in school or college. You can also ask questions from experienced writers. They will guide you to write plagiarism-free content. If you still have doubts, put your text within quotes and add citations.

Conclusion

Following all the tips listed above you can easily write plagiarism-free content. You need to be very cautious while writing your work, whether you are writing your research paper, doing academic assignments, writing blogs, and articles, or authoring a book. Plagiarism is illegal and the person whose work you copy can charge you with a violation of intellectual copyright. So, make sure you avoid plagiarism and put sincere effort to write your own work. You can take information from various sources (of course you will need to give citations and references for this), but when you present it, you should present it in your own words.

Also Read : How To Write A Professional Reference Letter