How to not Plagiarize your content?

Plagiarism can be defined as a practice where we use someone else’s work or content for our academic writing without acknowledging it with proper citations or references. As per the university guidelines, it is considered as an illegal practice, where people tend to steal other’s work or ideas without citing them to the main source. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, plagiarism comes with several disadvantages for people who adhere to this practice of copying content.

While writing for an academic paper, there are certain things that you need to keep in mind in order to compile a perfectly written compilation. One of the most important things is to maintain academic ethics and integrity by ensuring that your work is not plagiarized in any context. In simple words, you must always cite the sources for the information or piece collected for your content, or else it would be marked as plagiarized in your assessment.

It is very important to maintain the academic integrity of your paper, so you must acknowledge the originator for its work, rather than just stealing their content or information for your own purpose. At times, paraphrasing and summarizing a work gets counted under plagiarism and dishonesty factor, so beware of such practices while writing for your own.

If you want to establish your own points in a stronger manner, then make sure that you provide enough evidence for claims to support your idea. This also ensures that the writer is not engaged in any kind of plagiarized activity. In order to ensure that your work in not plagiarized to any context, follow the steps mentioned below for better comprehension-

Step 1

Before beginning to write your content, make sure that you understand the context well so that you do not rely on someone else’s work for your own purpose. You can draw ideas or cite conclusions from important research papers or books, but never go to the extent of copying someone else’s content or information for your paper. Do not present their ideas in the same words; instead, go for comprehending their ideas and thoughts in a paraphrased manner.

Step 2

While researching for your content, make sure that you copy the source of research point along with the content or else you’ll fail to serve the purpose of authenticity through your content. Many times, students forget to take a note of the source from which the information was collected before and accidentally end up presenting it as their own. No such mistakes should be committed, especially when you need to submit one for your academics.

Step 3

What paraphrasing actually means? Well, this is where you gain the idea about some source or information and then present it in your own words, but remember that only the main or primary ideas need to be discussed here. That too, with proper acknowledgement. While paraphrasing, you need to make sure that the meaning of your content is kept unaltered, i.e., it is not copied as from the source.

Step 4

In case of long paragraphs and arguments, it is advised to paraphrase that content in your own words. But when it comes to shorter phrases or arguments, you must adhere to quotations along with proper citations for it. Quotes are also considered to be a necessary source for the claims made by the author.

Step 5

After writing down the content for your paper, make sure that you check the score for plagiarism in it, as this helps in evaluating or tracing the source of content being copied. This can be done with the help of various websites and plagiarism checking tools available online.

Step 6

Whenever you try to cite some source in your content, remember, it is not just any citation; rather, it requires a proper framework for it, where the name of the author along with the publication date and work is written down for citation. Each of the citations needs to correspond to the entire reference list presented at the end of each document. This reference list (bibliography) helps you to organize your sources sequentially in a manner to interpret the motive of your arguments and ideas well in the content.

So, these were some essential steps that can help you avoid plagiarism in your academic paper. Apart from this, if you require any kind of help regarding your academic papers or assignments, feel free to contact our online academic writing services for professional help and guidance.