07 Dec How to Avoid Plagiarism in Essay Writing: Five Easy Methods

The trickiest part in writing an essay is how to avoid plagiarism. You may be passing somebody else’s work as your own in your paper and not even know about it.

However, such carelessly done work may cost you your degree. Here are five easy methods to adopt if you wish to be fair in your essay writing assignment.

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1. Cite Your Source

If you wish to avoid plagiarism, you must first understand it correctly. Once you know this, you will automatically realize the importance of citing your sources correctly. So, what constitutes plagiarism? Students often don’t even realize that they have plagiarized someone else’s work.

Plagiarism means using somebody else’s work as your own, whether accidentally or deliberately. Your academic authorities will treat it as an offense in both situations. Therefore, you must understand its seriousness and be careful when writing an essay.

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Once the importance of citing your sources is established, it is crucial to understand how to do it correctly. If you have to refer to an idea or a set of words written by another writer, it becomes imperative for you to mention the source, who has written it, the name of the title, and the date of publication of the original work.

Make sure that you cite according to the standard of the citation style you are required to follow. However, the problem arises when you don’t remember the source of the idea you have mentioned in your essay, leading to accidental plagiarism.

Being thoroughly organized in your work is the best way to avoid it. It would help if you prepared your notes after thorough study, well before you sit down to write your essay. It would help if you remembered to keep your notes as self-explanatory as you can.

Don’t forget to highlight the ideas that are not yours and need to be cited in the final essay. Mention the source in your notes to make it convenient to cite. Keep a detailed record of all the sources you have studied for your essay, whether it’s a research paper, a journal, a website, or a magazine article.

Doing this will make your life more accessible and your task easily manageable. You must also remember to mark any quotes you intend to use in your essay. So, if you are concerned about avoiding plagiarism in your essay, correct citation of outside sources is the easiest way.

2. Paraphrase With Care

If you wish to follow the no plagiarizing policy of your academic organization to the dot, the second-best method is to paraphrase another writer’s ideas and words with care. When you intend to share more extended pieces of information or ideas from another source, the best way is to paraphrase it and not quote it.

Why? Mainly because your essay should be a concoction of pictures and words from other authors and your understanding of the research. Your analysis and interpretation must also be visible in your work. Paraphrasing a passage from a source allows you to express your knowledge of the original text in your own words, making your ideas dominate your essay.

However, the problem is many writers don’t understand what constitutes paraphrasing. It surely does not mean substituting a few words from the original text and calling it your own. Paraphrasing means rewriting the source’s ideas as you have interpreted them, hence, presenting your understanding of the original text.

However, the trick is to keep the original vision intact. Even if you have paraphrased from a source, it will still be considered somebody else’s viewpoint. So, you must cite it according to your citation style.

3. Beware of Cutting and Pasting

Cutting and pasting from a magazine or a website is a great temptation for many students who think their professor will not identify the source. However, this is a grave ethical offense you will be committing if you fall for the temptation.

Don’t be over-smart. Your professor will eventually find out about it, costing you your grade. Some students are tempted to copy from their previous work committing self-plagiarism. Your professor may still consider this unethical, especially if the publisher hasn’t allowed it to be reused.

4. Include Quotations

How to prevent plagiarism is a tricky question for many students. Your essay will not be considered complete and well-written if you don’t refer to other works on your essay topic. However, whatever external source you use, make sure to credit the writer by citing the source appropriately.

One of the ways to use outside sources is by quoting the actual text word-by-word. However, don’t forget to introduce the text in your own words. Quotes are always enclosed within inverted commas and proper reference within brackets.

Remember, the beauty of your essay exists if you don’t quote excessively. Too many quotes will spoil the originality of your writing. It would also help to refrain from using very long quotations in your text.

5. Use a Plagiarism Checker

Once your essay is complete, your primary concern will be to check it for grammatical errors and accidental plagiarism. Run it through a plagiarism checker to check for the most common plagiarism errors that include;

• Incorrectly paraphrased text;
• Incorrect or missed citations;
• Quoting without quotation marks;
• Missing sources in the final reference list.

An authentic plagiarism checker will scan your document against possible intellectual property violations. It will identify any instances where you have accidentally committed plagiarism and highlight them for your convenience.

Once the errors are identified, your next concern will be how to get out of plagiarism in your essay. The easy answer is, follow the methods mentioned above and make your essay plagiarism-free. So, running your paper through a plagiarism checker is a good idea before the final submission of your essay.

Conclusion

Avoiding plagiarism in essay writing is a pertinent topic in today’s time when colleges and universities exercise a no-tolerance policy towards plagiarism. Follow these five easy methods to eliminate any traces of plagiarism in your essay and produce a top-grade piece for final submission. On the other hand, there are other solutions – you can buy essay on PaperWriter, to make sure you pass that plagiarism test.