Copy-pasting is getting pretty common these days and this is not good news by any means. In fact, majority of the college students admit to stealing someone’s content at least once. Meanwhile, almost all students commit plagiarism unknowingly because of a lack of awareness. If you’re a student who’s looking for fail-proof guidance on this, you’re just at the right spot. Unless you write your work using our plagiarism guidelines, you’re going to lose marks. Anyone would love to copy-paste stuff while doing their homework but the consequences can be pretty ugly.
Writing original assignments, essays and reports are so difficult that students pay someone to take my online course. If you want to avoid plagiarism, you need to know all its types. Moreover, regardless of the type, all of them are serious academic offences. So let’s see how you can save yourself from the consequences of copying content. Let’s begin!
Types Of Plagiarism
Learning about the following types of plagiarism can help you avoid severe consequences:
Paraphrasing
Rewriting someone else’s content is still as good as stealing, but most students don’t understand this. Such methods are not okay, especially if you don’t cite your sources correctly and can result in plagiarism.
Mosaic
Here, writers replace words with synonyms to use another author’s work without putting much effort. You may find it undetectable but there are many powerful tools out there that can easily catch it.
Verbatim
This is simply copy-pasting someone’s text to your own document without crediting the source. Even if you copy-paste the works and shorten some of them, it is still stealing.
Accidental
This happens when you paraphrase someone’s work without knowing it. Furthermore, when you forget to cite the sources of the texts used in a document, it falls in this category. Even though this happens unintentionally, students might have to deal with a lot of consequences.
Incorrect Citing
If you’re citing sources in a hurry, you might cite them incorrectly and this can result in plagiarism. Incorrect citations happen when you’re not aware of the format you should use. Hence, consult your teacher and use an online tool for correct citation.
Duplicating Your Previous Work
Did you know it’s possible to steal from yourself? In the academic world, this type of plagiarism is called self-plagiarism in which you reuse your own work. This can happen when you are writing about something you’ve already written before. In other cases, students simply use their previous work and change a few things out of sheer laziness. Whether you steal your own work or someone else’s you’ll definitely get caught.
Making Up Sources
Sometimes, you may not be able to find the sources to provide references at the end. Hence, students come up with sources that don’t exist when they don’t have more time to research them. You may get away with it if your teacher isn’t careful, but you’re more likely to get caught.
Now that you’re fully aware of the types, let’s get into how you can avoid plagiarism.
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Start Beforehand:
Don’t wait until it’s too late to start working on the academic chores on your list. This is the best way to give yourself enough time to research and write your work. Most of the time, students resort to copy-pasting because they’re trying to meet the deadline. When you give yourself enough time to research, you simplify your writing process. Contrarily, if you haven’t done enough research, your work will be low on quality and most probably copied.
So start early by gathering enough information and listing down the key points you find useful. You can easily do this beforehand, in your free time and then write the assignment later. Whether the submission is after some hours or one day, your work will be researched and 100% original.
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Present Accurate In-text Citation
Citing means giving all the required information about the author or the source of your work. This is different from the list of references at the end of your work. You’re supposed to give in-text citations right next to the sentence or paragraph you have sourced.
Moreover, your in-text citations should match the references you provide at the end. Make sure you cite as you write because even missing a single citation results in plagiarism. There are different ways of providing an in-text citation, so consult with your subject teacher to find out. Finally, citing materials for when you are using your previous work will help you deal with self-plagiarism.
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Don’t Forget The References
Don’t think that you’ve avoided plagiarism just by providing in-text citations. Once you have cited all the sources in the body of the text, you need to provide a list of references at the end. We still advise you to keep filling this section as you add sources in the main body. This is because you might miss out or forget to provide the reference of a source at the end.
Just as with citation, the format of reference depends on the discipline or subject. However, there is a general rule to always write the reference in alphabetical order starting from A to Z. Mostly, the references have the author’s name, publishing date, title, and source. Although their order changes as per the referencing style you are required to use. Make sure that the information in the references is correct and use an online tool to make your job easier.
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Develop Interest in Your Topic
Your writing is more smooth and flawless when you’re actually interested in what you’re writing about. If you take on an assignment or project half-heartedly, you’ll find yourself looking for ideas online. Of course, then one thing leads to another, and you end up copy-pasting or rephrasing someone else’s work.
Many students admit that they copy0pasted because they found the topic boring or difficult. When writing about something new that you lack interest in, you won’t be able to research it properly. Hence, even if the topic doesn’t match your taste, take it as a fun challenge that you need to accomplish. Thus, instead of stressing over sources and references, you might even present your own ideas. Just make sure that the ideas are actually relevant and accurate, and your work will be reduced.
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Check Before Submission
Sometimes try your best to avoid it but still, end up with plagiarized work. This innocent mistake can result in serious penalties and consequences for your academics. The best way to make sure it has not slipped through your eyes is to use a good plagiarism tool. If you’re not sure which online tools are good, you can take advice from your teachers and classmates.
The internet gives you many free tools for checking plagiarism that you don’t even have to install. Moreover, if you want a plagiarism tool with unlimited features, you can go premium! Thus, make sure you give yourself enough time, in the end, to check and recheck before the final submission.
Conclusion:
Plagiarism is a popular ethical issue that many students worry about. Whether you intend to or not, stealing someone’s work comes with great penalties. Regardless of what you are submitting, plagiarism is simply not allowed. Just as you can pay someone to take my online course, you can also hire experts to remove plagiarism from your document!