Plagiarism issues, being currently on the rise, make both students and academicians wonder about the limits of using intellectual back-ups. Plagiarism is not always committed on intention. In fact, many plagiarized works simply contain inadequate references or display an accidental mixture of original and borrowed thoughts. Though avoiding plagiarism sounds like a challenge, it’s much easier than it seems.
What is Plagiarism?
Basically, plagiarism is using somebody else’s thoughts, opinions, research or any kind of visual information (graphs, charts, etc.) without acknowledging their original source or without giving credits to their author. In this sense, plagiarized essay either contains or entirely consists of content not credited for its origin – or credited incorrectly.
How to Recognize Plagiarism
Plagiarized paper will, most probably, bear visible traces of opinions and statements which do not result from the overall logic of the specific argument. Statements which don’t result immediately from body essay might bear a stamp of intellectual property theft. Rewording ideas and passages from other sources is equally unacceptable -- except for a legitimate paraphrase which abides by all academic honesty rules.
How Not to Plagiarize
Avoiding plagiarism takes much more than just usual proofreading and adding works cited page. It should become every writer’s habit to stick to a certain pattern of organizing his or her intellectual work-out.
- Drafting – already at the stage of research, writers should keep track of all sources they might want to use later on. To avoid confusion writers should document all contents that will be quoted or paraphrased and put down accurate notes about their origin.
- Following Citation Styles – writers should always keep a copy of citation styles guidelines at hand. They should be consulted prior to writing as well as during providing references. The former enables citing sources in the correct format; the latter helps to cover all the required bibliographical information.
- Building Argument Supported by Sources – writer’s interpretation of a given topic is influenced by reading of related literature. That’s why subsequent paragraphs must be built in such a way so as to provide a clear vision of what impact sources had on writer’s conclusions. It should be always clear how, why and where exactly interpretation was drawn from other sources.
What is Not Plagiarism?
Citing bare facts, so-called common knowledge, without referencing them anywhere in an essay is not plagiarism. Well-known, scientific and objective facets of any academic domain require no credits at all. The most important skill here is the ability to differentiate between facts and interpretations or opinions.
Plagiarism must be avoided at all costs not only because it’s considered a very dishonest and shameful practice. The problem about plagiarizing is that it reduces writer’s ability to think critically, to judge independently and develop his or her knowledge as well as writing skills. For further tips on avoiding plagiarism read this article.
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