Log In
Learn How to Avoid Plagiarism In The Assignment
Table of Contents
Knowing how to avoid plagiarism in the assignment is one of those skills that many college students learn the hard way when they face high similarity plagiarism reports. It doesn’t even matter if it relates to TurnItIn or any other accusations. The rules remain the same when similarity reports are provided.
Since plagiarism types may include unintentional cases and those unfortunate occasions when no proper credit has been given to the original author, it is extremely hard to prove that something has been done by accident. Nevertheless, there are several ways that one can implement to avoid trouble and stay on the safe side.
The Most Common Ways to Avoid Plagiarism
Without a doubt, there are many ways to avoid plagiarism. The most important is to present a clever mixture of citations and your ideas by incorporating these together. Your quotes must be there for a solid reason, not only because something sounds good or it has been included in your textbook. The safest approach would be to use the following pattern: introduction of an idea, your argumentation, reliable cited source with some statistical fact or claim, your analysis of this information. This way you can either paraphrase it as you provide an explanation or use a direct quote. As you write, keep your number of quotes to a minimum.
Here are the most popular methods to prevent plagiarism.
- Formatting Your Sources According to Style Manuals. The majority of plagiarism issues relate to incorrect formatting that happens when students do not know how to cite in APA or MLA styles correctly. Such cases belong to plagiarism. It is one of the most common mistakes because learners believe that only direct copying of text represents plagiarism. Check every comma, every space, and indent as your attention and accuracy is the best way to avoid plagiarism. When in doubt, read formatting rules or see template examples.
- Avoiding Incomplete Sources. When you cannot provide good sources with sufficient information, it is better to avoid them entirely. Remember that your content must implement only verified resources. Why is this important? The reason is simple: your college professor or any other reader won’t be able to check the credibility of your resource when you have (NASA, n.d.) or similar examples that do not provide precise information. When you are dealing with some research work or dissertation, it can become a serious issue that goes beyond plagiarism concerns.
- Correcting Amount of Quotations In Your Essay. It means that you should not overfill your paper with quotations. It is quite often that college professors encounter assignments that start with a direct quote. While it may be necessary for some scenarios, your ideas must be supported by relevant research, not vice versa. Find the right balance and provide your ideas first because it will help to decrease similarities as your paper is checked via machine-learning plagiarism detection tools.
- Using Quotation Marks. It is one of the safest ways to help avoid trouble with detection systems like TurnItIn. Using quotation marks forces plagiarism tools to skip relevant parts. Still, as you quote something directly, it becomes virtually impossible to check the credibility of such information unless your college professor does so manually. Therefore, take good care when you use direct quotes and do not overdo it because it is your ideas that matter!
- Providing Real-Life Examples. When you provide something that you have seen or heard that might support your research, it must be done without quoting or turning to someone else’s interpretation. Keeping things unique takes time, which is why those students who research their subject are much better at avoiding plagiarism. Keep it innovative, implement multimedia sources, and provide analysis. Even though we all know that it is very hard to defend one’s ideas without some evidence, check twice before you provide some references that clearly support your points.
- Knowing How to Paraphrase Correctly. Paraphrasing is one of the most popular and safest ways to avoid plagiarism. It stands for rewriting ideas that are not yours in your own words without changing the original meaning. Remember that it must be done correctly or you will end up with the woes of unintentional plagiarism. Even though you do not plagiarize anything, it also means that you should format things in an original. Just keep the original meaning but do so in your own words, the way that you understand it. Even in this case, you must provide a full reference since you are implementing someone else’s idea to make your assignment sound credible.
- Checking Yourself For Self-Plagiarism Risks. Sometimes there are plagiarism cases that are not intentional. The talk goes about self-plagiarism, which basically means using information from your past assignments. It can become an issue when your paper is used in a group project or becomes published. Always discuss these concerns with your college advisor when in doubt. Remember that when you are a first-college student, using bits and pieces from your past assignments may be obligatory to advance your writing.
- Approaching Additional Plagiarism Checker Help. Another way to reduce plagiarism is to use a plagiarism checker for assignments. It will help to correct formatting issues and will form your citations automatically based on DOI or ISBN among other things. It is also a great time saver that helps to avoid mechanical citing aspects.
Use these simple tips and remember to proofread your text twice to ensure that it sounds credible and has a correct balance of your ideas and citations that are properly referenced!
