5 Tips on Avoiding Plagiarism in Your Essay

The attitude towards plagiarism is increasingly becoming more and more rigorous in the scientific community. The problem resides in both academic ethics and the global legislative practice regarding intellectual property rights.

An allegation of plagiarism entails severe penalties, including expulsion from university or a punitive discharge.

Actions that lead to plagiarism ratings are:

Direct copying of content or presentation of someone’s work as your own.
Using ideas or whole phrases without reference to their source.
Quotation marks’ misuse. This happens when someone copies a piece from a source but does not envelope it in quotation marks. Or, the other way around.
Improper referencing. For example, a student takes content from one source and mentions another one – this would be a copyright infringement.
Skipping a plagiarism check. Manual checking all the content is simply not possible. Using plagiarism checking tools often helps find plagiarized pieces in printed texts.

Want to know how to avoid plagiarism? Read on to find out!

Make Notes

Writing any type of paper, first, read the material from varying sources several times. Doing so will help understand the main idea. Then put the source aside and write down the theses for your future work.

When you start writing the full-text version, use these abstract notes, not the original text. Notes help recollect the ideas and examples used in the source. Sure, you are likely to forget the exact phrasing and order of the sentences as they are in the original.

This tip would not do the trick for the papers based on many source readings, as reading them and taking notes will take ages.

Use Help

The simplest way to get a unique essay or thesis paper is with the help of professional writers. Go to any site offering a coursework writing service EssayWritingService.com. Such services guarantee the absence of plagiarism.

Enter the number of pages, the title, and a couple of suggestions. You will get the job done in hours or a couple of days, depending on the size.

Paraphrase

Paraphrasing allows writing down the author’s thoughts in your own words without distorting the original idea. This method also helps avoid quoting the source text directly.

Remember that simple word-to-word substitution is not enough to rephrase complex sentences. Here you will need to use synonyms and rearrange the whole parts.

This method is perfect for Alias (a board game) fans. To paraphrase and summarize sources, imagine that you are explaining the material to a friend or fellow student. Here’s an example:

In-text citation APA (direct): “Mеdieval рeriod in literature is renowned for the so-called ballad meter…” (Doe, J. & Smith M. 2011, p. 16).
In-text citation APA (indirect): Researchers J. Doe and J. Smith dedicated many years to analyzing the patterns typical for the literary pieces of this time. In their studies, reflected in the book “Analysis of early Medieval poetry” they insist that the ballad meter was the most popular rhythmic pattern in the poems (Doe, J. & Smith M. 2011, p. 16).

source: https://unsplash.com/photos/505eectW54k

Avoid Patchworking Whenever Possible

Most of the academic papers need to be based on reliable data. Thus, students end up taking a lot of words and ideas from the source materials. In the absence of due references, these actions cause accidental plagiarism.

Information from internet resources (blogs, social networks, etc.) should be paraphrased and linked to the sources. In any case, students should not insert whole fragments into the academic work.

Use Correct Referencing

A direct quote is always the exact statement of the author without changes. When it is necessary to use the exact phrasing apply proper citation style. While quoting a statement or a paraphrased passage of somebody’s text for the first time, include the author’s name in both the sentence and an in-text citation.

Depending on the paper type (АРА, MLA, Chicago, etc.), citation rules will differ. If you don’t want to do the referencing yourself, better turn to paperwritingservice.com or a platform alike. Yet, if you want some examples, here they are:

Sample text: “Mеdiеvаl period in literature is renowned for the so-called ballad meter…”

Entry in the reference in APA-style list: Doe, J. & Smith M. (2011). Analysis of early Mеdieval poetry. Blue Birds Press.
MLA referencing: John Doe and James Smith. Analysis of early Mеdiеval poetry. Blue Birds Press, 2011.
Chicago reference list entry: John Doe and James Smith. Analysis of early Mеdiеval poetry. New York: Blue Birds Press, 2011.

source: https://unsplash.com/photos/RSc6D7bO0fA

Final Words

There are many ways to avoid plagiarism in essays and other types of writing. One of the most effective is the indication of links to information sources. Describing the main idea of the original text in your own words is a good way to avoid patchworking.

Summing up, the main ways to avoid plagiarism are as follows: