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PLAGIARISM AND HOW TO AVOID IT
This essay defines what plagiarism is and the various ways in which one can avoid it
when presenting either papers or projects to academic institutions. The first part clearly
states what plagiarism is while the second part examines incidences where plagiarism may
occur and how to counter eliminate the vice.
Plagiarism is using another person’s words, ideas, article’s or books without giving
credit to the original owner. This vice can seriously have a negative impact in one’s academic
life as it may lead to poor grades, failure or even expulsion from an institution.
First, you need to have a record from which your ideas came from. This actually the
best way to avoid plagiarism since you will not be presenting the ideas as your own. You will
be required to keep a well-organized notebook clearly indicating the author or owner of a
particular concept. However, not all ideas may come from other people as one may also be
creative and reasonable enough to have his or her thoughts. It is therefore imperative to
distinguish self-work from other peoples’ works by using in-text citations. It is therefore a
good idea to have full details of your reference sources as you do your piece for easy
referencing at the very end.
Secondly, you need to paraphrase articles from other authors. In situations where you
have to use other person’s work, putting the content in your own words is of importance.
Copy and paste work will automatically lead to plagiarism. Paraphrasing gives a brief
summary of the original text and does not include deep explanations of concepts. In general
quote sparingly but appropriately only when giving exact definitions or when you wish to
maintain the used command of language in the original text e.g. “Arts and culture
undoubtedly flourished in 20s as a shared American pop culture emerged thanks to the advert
of radio broadcasting, widely circulated magazines and movies” (Thulin 2021)
Thirdly, giving credit to the original author of an idea or phrase keeps off plagiarism.
This is done by using in text citation or clearly having a list of references or a bibliography
(in Chicago format) at the very end of your work. The reference or bibliography is always a
list containing the sources you actually used to write your piece. This lists contains facts
about the source i.e. the title, author, publication date and the website in case the source is
digital. It is important to note that each writing format has its own style of referencing that
must be duly followed. Citing the sources makes you acknowledge that the work is not yours
but of the written author. Plagiarism is thus avoided as a reader can definitely trace where the
idea or concept came from.
Lastly, plagiarism can also be avoided by using a plagiarism checker before
submitting your project or paper. Plagiarism checkers uses advanced database software to
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detect any similarity between your text or part thereof and another existing work that had
earlier been submitted or saved. These checkers scan your whole document and gives
indication on what has been copied elsewhere and by what percentage. Some checkers also
indicate the sources from which they were lifted from. From this one is able to what part of
his or her documentation he or she needs to edit to get off the plagiarism hook. However, its
sometimes impossible to avoid plagiarism in your text especially while giving definitions but
one must make sure it does not go beyond 10%.
In conclusion therefore plagiarism is caused by copy pasting of other people’s
articles, failure to paraphrase concepts in your own words and not citing the sources of your
references. To avoid this, you should always use a plagiarism checker before submitting your
paper or project and make necessary edition.
Works Cited
Guiamet, Juan. " ARGENTINE SOCIALISM AND MASS CULTURE "Times of Extreme
Broadcasting
Thulin , Camilla. "How to Avoid Plagiarism When Writing A Research Paper."
http://papersowl.com/blog/how-to-write-a-research-paper-without-plagiarism
