How to Avoid Plagiarism in Your Assignments: Practical Tips

Did you know that plagiarism is not a new concept rather it dates back to ancient times.  However; the fortunate or the unfortunate thing is that in today’s age of technological advancement, you can not only detect plagiarism easily but can also give evidence for it. Many such tools have been introduced that spot the plagiarised content and also give the original source from where the content has been taken. This plagiarism detection tarnishes students’ reputations plus sometimes might also lead to legal issues due to copyright laws. In short, the consequences of plagiarism can be personal, professional, ethical, and legal.

These might be the reasons enough for the students to realise that no matter how short the time is for assignment submission or how difficult the assignment paper is, you must avoid plagiarism at all costs. Any stolen idea, concept or already published work leads to plagiarism. Sometimes students add plagiarised content without even realising it, it is because there are many types of plagiarism. In the following post, we will discuss in detail about plagiarism, its types and most importantly the ways to avoid plagiarism while crafting your academic papers.

✍️ Plagiarism And Its Types:

“Plagiarism is one of the great academic sins. It has the power to destroy a scholar or writer and turn a lifetime’s work to dust.” –Miranda Devine

If the aforementioned quote was stated without quotation marks and without mentioning the name of the writer, then it would be counted as plagiarism. Basically; plagiarism can be defined as using someone else’s content in your work without giving the due credit to the original source. Plagiarism can also include re-using your own work without citation. Most of the time, students are not even aware of the fact that they have used content without giving credit to the source. Only after being familiar with all types of plagiarism; you can avoid it to its fullest. Some of the main types of plagiarism include:

• Accidental Plagiarism: As the name implies, this is the type of plagiarism where a student steals the content without even realising it. This type of plagiarism takes place when a student either forgets to add the citation or fails to follow the referencing style accurately. Besides that; failing to add quotation marks around the cited quote also results in accidental plagiarism.
• Paraphrasing Plagiarism: This is the type of plagiarism where a student takes the content from another source and changes a few words or phrases of the content. It might range from simple rephrasing to completely rewriting the content. Mostly, students don’t consider it a type of plagiarism as they think that reshuffling the words can save their content from getting plagiarised; which is not true.
• Complete Plagiarism: This is the type of plagiarism where the student takes the work or research study of any other researcher and submits it under his name. Some people have this misconception that getting an assignment writing service from online platforms can also result in complete plagiarism but this is not the case. It is because when you get professional help then the project is customised according to the students’ requirements which eliminates the chances of plagiarism.
• Self-plagiarism: Have you ever experienced your own work being highlighted as a plagiarised work? It might be frustrating but is something that is unavoidable because once your project has been published then you will have to credit the original post in order to re-use even your very own ideas or concepts. Using your ideas more than once in different academic papers results in a type of plagiarism known as self-plagiarism.
• Mosaic Plagiarism: Mosaic plagiarism is the kind of plagiarism in which a student takes two to three sentences from another study and incorporates them into his content without giving any credit. It is also known as patchwriting as you bring patches of others’ content and steal the idea.
• Direct Plagiarism: Direct plagiarism is the type of plagiarism where each word of the content has been copied from another source without giving any credit. This form of plagiarism seems similar to complete plagiarism but there exists a slight difference between the two, as in direct plagiarism only a certain section is copied while in complete plagiarism, the whole study is copied without crediting the source.

📌 Repercussions Of Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is a serious offence in the academic world. Any type of plagiarism is not acceptable when it comes to academic writing tasks. You can get assignment help or seek feedback from professionals as much as you want but once you deliver your project, you need to be sure of the fact that it is 100% plagiarism-free so that you won’t have to face the repercussions of plagiarism detection. The repercussions of plagiarism include:

• TARNISHED STUDENT REPUTATION: Once the plagiarism has been detected from the student’s project then he will no longer be trusted for submitting original work. Intentional plagiarism often gets the student expelled or suspended from the educational institute.
• DESTROYED ACADEMIC REPUTATION: Educational institutes take disciplinary action against plagiarism, which can include suspension or expulsion as well as failing grades on assignments. A student’s academic record can be permanently tarnished because of plagiarism.
• RUINED PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION: A record of plagiarism can seriously harm one’s chances of getting a job in the future, even outside of academic life. Employers place a high value on honesty and the capacity for originality, so any damage to one’s academic image can limit his career prospects as well.
• LEGAL REPERCUSSIONS: Academic plagiarism can result in serious legal consequences varying from copyright infringement lawsuits to civil penalties. The degree of plagiarism determines the consequences. Common consequences include financial penalties, academic losses, and damaged reputations.

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💡 Tips To Avoid Plagiarism In Your Assignments:

All educational institutes and faculties put too much pressure on students to submit plagiarism-free work. This pressure often makes them go through the state of writer’s block. They should know that there is nothing to be scared of; all you need to do is to relax, sit back and follow the few simple rules mentioned below;

1. Do A Thorough Research:
   “If you steal from one author it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many it’s research.”- Wilson Mizner
   The abundance of knowledge would never make anyone want to take an idea or concept from any source. This is why it is always recommended to conduct thorough research in your respective area of study or the selected topic so that you can elaborate on it with a deep understanding. An easy method to keep plagiarism out is to provide yourself with a sufficient amount of time, this will allow you to research and write your academic paper effectively.
2. Always Mention The Source: Whether it is a statement, a survey, or a fact; you must always mention the source. Mentioning the statement only without giving the source reflects the statement as your own which is a form of plagiarism. This is why, make sure to add the source name, towards the end of the statement. You must clearly label which thoughts are yours and which are not in order to avoid plagiarism.
3. Paraphrase Carefully: If you find certain material extremely relevant to your academic paper and you want to incorporate it into your content then you must paraphrase it carefully. As William Inge once said; originality is undetected plagiarism. You need to ensure that you are not just using synonyms rather you need to change the sentence structure and the formulation of the paragraph, even though the idea remains the same. As the concept is still someone else’s so mentioning one statement in citation form will help to avoid plagiarism.
4. Add Quotation Marks: This is one of the simplest ways of avoiding plagiarism without having to mention the source name. You just need to add quotation marks around the statement which is enough to tell that these are not your words. Adding the name of the source along with the quotation is even better. 
5. Follow The Appropriate Citation Style: The most legitimate and authentic way of avoiding plagiarism from your content is to incorporate the reference while following the specific citation style. Add a citation which includes the source’s full name, the date of publication, the publisher and other required details. Use any of the preferred citation styles as told by your advisor. Some of the most commonly used citation styles include:
   • APA Citation Style: APA or American Psychological Association is the form of a referencing style that is mainly used in social sciences, psychology, and education. This style focuses on author-date citations within the text and mentions a reference list at the end. It includes guidelines for formatting papers, citing sources, and creating a reference list.
   • MLA Citation Style: MLA or Modern Language Association is commonly used in disciplines like humanities, literature, and liberal arts, This style uses parenthetical in-text citations. It focuses on the author’s name and page number within the text for citations.
   • Chicago Citation Style: The Chicago style has two main sub-styles; notes and bibliography plus an author-date style. Notes and bibliography style uses footnotes or endnotes for citations and includes a bibliography. The author-date style resembles APA and emphasises parenthetical citations within the text and a reference list.
   • Harvard Referencing Style: This style is quite popularly used in multiple disciplines. It emphasises author-date citations within the text, incorporating the author’s name and publication year, with a specific list of references.
   • IEEE Referencing Style: IEEE or Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is mainly used in technical fields. It uses numbered citations within square brackets in the text and provides a numbered reference list.
6. Present A New Perspective: The idea of taking content or hints from someone else work might seem appealing but once you start to find the gaps and see the research studies from your own perspective then a new light is brought into the field. This new perspective not only helps in avoiding plagiarism once and for all but also contributes to the field in a unique and original manner.
7. Use Plagiarism-detecting Tools: There are times when some sentences, phrases or statements stay with you and you get to use them in writing without realising that you learned this information through some source. In such cases,  it is best to use plagiarism-detecting tools. Many such highly advanced tools have been introduced that can help the students by highlighting the plagiarised content for them so that they can make the changes accordingly before final submission. Some of the most popularly used plagiarism detection tools include;
   • Turnitin: It is one of the best plag-detecting tools that has a comprehensive database and checks against academic publications, student submissions, as well as internet sources. It also provides reports that highlight the matching content. In this way, you get to know the original source and can add citations or remove the content; depending upon your content requirements.
   • Grammarly: This is yet another quite popular app that offers a plagiarism checker within its list of tools. This application scans the content for potential matches against web pages and other documents. It identifies the similarities between your content and other content while providing a highlighted report.
   • Plagscan: It is yet another tool that offers comprehensive scanning of documents against multiple sources, varying from internet pages to online publications and its own database. This tool checks submitted content against its database and external sources. It also provides a detailed report with matched sources that can help the students in figuring out the plagiarised content and removing it accordingly.
   • Unicheck: This is the plagiarism detection tool that scans against various sources like web pages and academic databases. It also generates similarity reports that allow you to compare submitted content against its extensive database. Students can fix the highlighted content either by crediting the original source or by fixing it in other ways.

📝 Conclusion:

The idea of stealing someone else content has always been unethical and is completely unacceptable in the world of academics as well. This is why plagiarism is considered a serious crime and it must be avoided at every cost. In order to avoid plagiarism, you must be familiar with all types of plagiarism. Moreover; some such practical tips have been presented in the above-mentioned that will help the students in formulating original assignments without any signs of plagiarism in them.