Having paid thousands of pounds to attend your preferred academic institution, you don’t want to destroy your education – do you? We’re guessing not, which is why in order to ensure you stay out of trouble, you must avoid plagiarism at all costs. Whilst a plagiarism checker can help eliminate minor mistakes in your work, our student guide to avoiding plagiarism can help you ensure that you don’t hit any bumps in the road. Find out exactly what you need to know about avoiding plagiarism below.
What Is Plagiarism?
In order to successfully avoid plagiarism, you need to have a clear understand of what plagiarism is, and what is considered to be plagiarism. First things first, you want to avoid plagiarism like the plague. Why you ask? Well, if your work contains plagiarised content, it may be destroyed and you can get expelled from your course – if not your academic institution. Depending on the offence, plagiarism may even result in serious legal action. Essentially, plagiarism is the practise of using another person’s work and passing it off as your own. In other words, plagiarism is copying something that isn’t credibly yours.
Step 1: Take Careful Notes
Now that you understand what plagiarism is, in order to avoid it, you must take careful notes. When taking notes, whether it is from an online source or book, ensure you read the entire text for a good understanding of what the passage is about. Once you are happy that you understand what the text is conveying, the next best way to avoid plagiarism is to summarize it in your own worlds. When taking careful notes, it is paramount that you paraphrase important points, and should you need to copy useful quotes, ensure they are enclosed in quotation marks to avoid getting confused.
Step 2: Citing Sources
The next step to avoiding plagiarism is to cite your sources correctly. When it comes to citing your sources, we suggest citing each source as soon as you have finished collecting information from the site. This way, you can rest assured that you haven’t forgotten to include any sources. When gathering information from a website you should collect:
- Authors name
- Title of work
- Group responsible for the website
- The date the website was last updated
- The date you accessed the website
- Website URL
Once you have collected the information, your completed source should look similar to the below:
“Authors name. “Title of work.” Group responsible for the website. The date you accessed the website, website URL”
However, when it comes to collecting information from either a letter or interview, you must record the names of the author and recipient, the data written or conducted, the collection name, the depository name and the name of location.
Step 3: Writing The Paper
When you are writing your final paper, it is vital that you keep track of which source each cited statement came from. You can keep track of this in several ways depending on what format you are using to write the paper. Placing an MLA reference, using footnotes and placing an APA reference are just three ways to ensure you don’t miss any sources out of your paper. Moreover, when writing the paper, in order to avoid plagiarism it is paramount that you use phrases that convey the same meaning as the piece of text you copied. Similarly, it is just as important, if not more so, to change the structure. Ultimately, changing the structure of the text will significantly reduce the risk of plagiarism, and thus you can rest assured that nothing has been copied word for word.
To recap, plagiarism is the action of taking another individuals work and passing it off as your own, so in order to avoid plagiarism, you want to ensure that you provide credit where it is due. Taking careful notes alone can significantly help reduce the risk of plagiarism, which is why it is paramount to not leave writing your paper to the last minute.
