From the very first year in school, students learn that plagiarism is unacceptable. It’s the least tolerable issue in academia, and can cost a person their reputation and future career prospects. Throughout all the years spent in school and college, students have to practice coming up with original ideas and developing them in writing and reasoning.
Although it probably doesn’t feel as immoral, plagiarism is still in fact theft. The difference is that intellectual property is significantly less tangible than material goods, which is why one can put a lot less thought into committing it. Nonetheless, every original idea is the result of its author’s work, and taking credit or profiting from it is equivalent to stealing in some way. There are different types of plagiarism, and they are not limited to writing. However, its written form is the one students are typically dealing with, and it’s notoriously easy to trace. Besides, it may happen to be the first type of plagiarism-related risks that students face. Plagiarizing a written assignment, even if it’s just a case of innocent borrowing at first, may be tempting for a person that doesn’t realize the gravity of the repercussions that can occur as the result of academic indecency. For that reason, it’s crucial to learn how to think critically and write originally. Here are our methods to avoid plagiarism in writing.
Understand the idea first
Students primarily practice composing original and coherent writing while preparing papers and essays for their classes, which is why we are focusing on academic writing here. In academic writing, it’s impossible to plagiarize the style or stylistic elements of a work of writing, as style involves the same standards for everyone. What one can plagiarize in academic writing is an idea or its wording. These are the cases you need to control and avoid. Plagiarism can be prevented by using original concepts or coming up with ideas based on what you have learned.
The first step towards coming up with original views is studying the existing ones. If you’re assigned an essay in philosophy, you will naturally have to read a lot of articles on the topic and study different facets of the issue. When you have enough information on the topic and can operate the facts. The more theoretical materials you read, the more ideas you will learn, and the easier it becomes for you to present them without repeating the source word by word. If you can thoroughly understand the theory, you are ready to introduce your own ideas without the fear of plagiarizing the sources directly. Besides, if you work with several different sources, each of them will contribute to your ideas and help create something original.
When you find what you want to cover in your writing, make sure to put it in the context of your assignments and give your personal and reasoned perspective on the issue you are reflecting on. It may seem like a complicated thought process, but once you have gathered the facts, the context, and your own viewpoint, you will practically have an original, non-plagiarized idea already, because it will be the product of your own intellectual activity. Put this thought in your own words, and keep on developing it. It doesn’t guarantee that this will be the last time you risk plagiarizing a source, but we will review the following instances in context so as to mitigate the danger as much as possible.
Work on expanding your vocabulary
It may appear rather illogical, but, in order not to steal from the writing of others, you need to read how other authors write. Reading is fundamental for original, interesting, and versatile writing, and the best way to see results is to make reading a habit. Naturally, you may not see the beneficial effects after ten minutes, but if you always spend your commute or other free time reading, your own thoughts will be sharpened and will crystalize in clearer wording.
Reading involves both the specific literature you have to go through for your course and the extracurricular fiction that interests you. Professional literature is there to expand your knowledge and introduce a topic for you in all the complexity. It’s something different from listening to a lecture. In a class, the professor usually gives some brief information on various topics. These summaries are the product of your professor processing the subject matter, finding the key ideas, and giving them to you in their own wording and with their own interpretation. Of course, professors know a lot more on the topic than students do, but a lecture is usually not enough. You need to complete the readings on the topic to be able to operate the ideas and the facts underlying the subject matter.
You also need to read fiction to feel more at ease with expressing your ideas. It’s engaging and way easier than intentionally learning specific vocabulary. By reading literature as a form of leisure, you entertain yourself and improve your writing at the same time. The processes in your brain happening while you read are similar to those that occur while you think. You can improve your reasoning and critical thinking skills simply by reading stories. However, the bad news is that nobody can build these neural connections but you. Just as a book is not equivalent to a film or video lesson in which you can already see the creator’s vision of the material laid out before you. While reading, you have to apply your imagination to create unique images based on what’s written, and this greatly improves your original thinking skills.
Learn to paraphrase and cite
To be able to write original work and use reputable sources to support your position, you cannot completely avoid using sources, especially in academic writing. To be objective and prove that your original idea or opinion is valid, you need to support it with facts or the results of research, which are impossible to make up, at least if you don’t want to fail your essay. Naturally, it’s important to be able to use the information from other authors and present it properly. The key is not to imply that it’s you who came up with the facts, but to demonstrate your ability to incorporate pre-existing information into your argument.
There are certain things you need to cite when you appeal to them in your writing. If there is any factual information in your essay, especially when it’s presented as numbers, you need to show that it’s not made-up. If there is a date, a year, a set of statistics, or a statement that needs to be proven, there must be a reference to the source from which you took this information. Even if there are no numbers, but the subject matter is complex or concerns something that must have been studied before, you need to include the reference for the source. The more precise you are about the sources used, the better. For example, mention not only the author and the year of publication, but also the page on which you found the particular information.
Finally, you need to deliver the information you cite in your own words. Whether it’s a statement from a philosophy book or a piece of statistics, don’t copy it sentence by sentence. It may contain things that are irrelevant to your essay, so take only what you need and deliver it according to your own understanding, then cite it appropriately.
Use direct quotes
Sometimes, to support your position or deliver an idea directly, paraphrasing may not work. In such cases, you can quote the source directly, without changing the word order or omitting anything you find important. However, it’s also important to be able to cite the source correctly.
First, you need to introduce the idea as one that doesn’t belong to you. You can give an idea of what you want to prove before or after inserting a quote, as well as point out why it’s important in your essay. Introduce the author of the quote and give the context for it. Then, frame the excerpt with quotation marks and give some additional information about the source.
For example,
According to John Locke, “Man is not permitted without censure to follow his own thoughts in the search of truth, when they lead him ever so little out of the common road” (1689).
In his 1689’s work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Quotes, Locke states that “Man is not permitted without censure to follow his own thoughts in the search of truth, when they lead him ever so little out of the common road.”
In both cases, you mark the source of the idea in detail.
However, you should also make sure that the major part of the paragraph consists of your own ideas. If the material you need to quote is longer than 4 lines (usually in Times New Roman, 12), use a block quote in the next paragraph. For example:
“There is nobody in the commonwealth of learning who doesn’t profess himself a lover of truth: and there is not a rational creature that would not take it amiss to be thought otherwise of. And yet, for all this, one may truly say, that there are very few lovers of truth, for truth’s sake, even amongst those who persuade themselves that they are so. How a man may know whether he be so in earnest, is worth inquiry: and I think there is one unerring mark of it, viz.” (Locke 1689)
Your ability to use the sources and incorporate them into your writing is as important as your capacity for originality.
Check the paper for plagiarism
Even if you wrote the whole paper yourself, your work can resemble something that is already on the internet. However sure you may be about your own writing, it’s better to double-check.
There are different services to check the originality of a work. Some of them are free and can only give you the percentage of originality of the text inserted. Others are more advanced. They detect cited materials and don’t count quoted text as being copied.
When you analyze the originality of your essay, you can be positive that there is no chance of even accidental plagiarism.
Bonus: some things are obvious and, therefore, not plagiarized
Not all the ideas or things you know need citing. Some of them are general knowledge and don’t require proof. Those types are:
- Facts that can be easily found in many sources (George Washington was the first President of the United States).
- Things that one can effortlessly observe (The Sun sets every evening).
- Common expressions (The road to hell is paved with good intentions).
If the information is not easy to access or doesn’t qualify as common knowledge, it’s better to mention where you took it from, just in case.
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The more you write, the easier it is to generate original ideas. If you don’t make a habit of borrowing others’ work, it will be effortless for you to see where you need to work a little harder on logic, reasoning, or supporting your argument. The main thing to remember is that citing reputable authors and presenting someone else’s ideas as your own are completely different. Thus, make sure you develop the right skills for achieving the former in your writing.
