What is plagiarism and how to avoid it? 

Plagiarism is act that means to copy the content from someone other person’s work. It’s a serious offence of academic misconduct and many students are failed in aboard universities due to this reason. Every student has fear and they don’t want to come under this suspicious act.  In this article, we will explain you some important tips on avoiding plagiarism, know some moves how to avoid plagiarism in your writing, some steps that will be useful avoiding plagiarism. 

Also read first:- Most common problems faced by student when writing assignments

How To Avoid Plagiarism – Student’s Guide & Examples 

There is important fact of using sources for avoiding plagiarism, and not to come under academic dishonesty. Avoiding plagiarism with simple tips & techniques that should how by a student and then what should be student’s strategies to reduce plagiarism? It’s important to do referencing in academic work or assignments for avoiding plagiarism, so this is A guide to ethical writing that will explain you Self-Plagiarism: How to Define It and Why You Should Avoid It and how to avoid plagiarism and academic dishonesty.  So lets start with The Concept Of Plagiarism And How Can You Prevent Plagiarism?

Also read:- Importance of referencing in writing an Assignment

Borrowing is Okay, But Copying is not OKAY at all in Academics.  

Avoiding plagiarism in must in academic work i.e classroom assignments, assessments solutions, your written essay, research papers and other university work and one of the best possible ways to avoid this serious offence of university using source or referencing. Assignment writing is hectic due to this reason that students are caught into plagiarism sometimes with accidently and sometimes internationally. But such offence of academic misconduct may result in failed in assignment. So very student has to care of while they prepare for their classroom assignments or homework. Most of the students due to this reason take assignment help services from online and get help from tutor for preparing original assignment. 

How to avoid plagiarism in Academic Work?

Plagiarism (Definition): The act of presenting someone else's ideas or work as your own, with or without that person's agreement, by integrating it into your work without giving it due credit, is known as plagiarism. This definition applies to all works, both published and unpublished, whether they are in manuscript, print, or electronic form. According to Merriam Webster online dictionary the word Plagiarism means "to steal and pass off as if it's one's own". So, stealing can be of anything be it their words, ideas, thoughts etc. This is from where actually the word plagiarism was given to copying and pasting the information in your own work without giving any credit. Though it is not illegal still it is being considered as violating the ethics and disciplinary actions can be taken by schools or colleges if stated not to do so. 

Types of plagiarism: It is basically of four types: 

• Direct plagiarism
• Self plagiarism
• Mosaic plagiarism
• Accidental plagiarism

Direct plagiarism: Exceptions applied, the deliberate copying and pasting of each word from someone else's content and passing it off as own without crediting the source is known as direct plagiarism. It is considered unethical in academic terms and if mentioned institutions take disciplinary action against the writer.

Self plagiarism: As the word states it depicts plagiarizing your own content. In this a student or anyone else just copies his/her previous information without informing or taking permission from the professors. It is also so when one presents content from his published information again into the second paper wishing to get published soon. In terms this type is also unethical.

Mosaic plagiarism: Also known as patch writing or paraphrasing. In this a person uses the same general structure but changes the language of the same. It might be using synonyms for some words.

Accidental plagiarism: The word suggests when a person accidentally uses the same content. It happens as when one just forgets to cite their sources from where the information has been taken, or by mistake the content appears same even after paraphrasing it. While doing any research work, the first and foremost thing a student must know how to cite sources. Knowing their citation formats is also very essential which APA, Vancouver etc is for example. Every type of plagiarism is considered as academic dishonesty violating the ethics but not a crime or an offence.

Also read:- Assignment DO’S AND DON’TS

Examples of plagiarism are: 

• Writing the wrong citation. For instance you are writing the reference for any research paper in APA format and it seems to be wrong. When the paper will go for submission it will come back just at the instant the editor reviews the references.
• Not paraphrasing something properly. Even after paraphrasing sometimes plagiarism comes as only some of the content has changed and rest everything seems to be same.
• Copying and pasting directly from Wikipedia
• Citing the source without full information which means the bibliography is not complete
• Everything is done proper citing and all but one forgets to quote the copied text to highlight it
• Sinha, S., Mukhopadhyay, K., Sengupta, R. S., Mukherjee, S., Chatterjee, C., & Borkondaj,

Also read:- Some Useful Online Resources to develop your kid's Academic Skills

B. (2022). An Observational Study on Pharmacoeconomics and Prescription Pattern of Drugs Used in Diabetes Mellitus (Type II) in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Eastern India. J Indian Med Assoc, 120(3), 41-7.

Content from page no. 42: This inflation may have its most probable cause in the rapid Urbanization in India that has made unhealthy lifestyle changes (like junk food consumption, sedentary habits) mainstream. This bears major Socio-economic implications, due to which the price of anti-diabetic medications is of utmost concern now. Thus, Diabetes Mellitus has now become a cause of huge pharmaco-economic burden Worldwide.

Paraphrase (Correct): Due to more and more people migrating into urban areas nowadays people are having unhealthy lifestyle pattern which has a direct cause on increasing its number of cases. It is further related to various social and economic complications and so the price of medicines (used to treat diabetes) is increasing and has become a matter of concern. That is also the main reason of pharmaco-economic burden occurring all over the world (42) or (Sinha 42).

How to avoid plagiarism? 

• How to avoid accidental plagiarism: In order to get rid of it, always have a notebook along with you in which you will capture or write various sources from which you are retrieving the data. At the end after the work is completed now you can acknowledge and cite the sources. This will lead to proper citation of sources and even accidentally your content will not be plagiarized.
• Citing references: In order to write correct references one can also use various tools available online such as End note web. With the help of these your bibliography framed will not be wrong.
• Always use quotation marks while you are using some key points directly from someone else content and not changing them. Along with the quotation of the content the reference is also necessary and is needed to be mentioned. Always remember to include short content within quotation marks and not the whole body. Also do cite your sources properly. Whether the content has been directly or indirectly taken from another source cite it. It can be your book, any website, diagrams, charts, tables or articles etc. One more thing to remember is that the citation must be in accordance with the articles rules. Because various paper has their own standards of referencing. Do follow that in order to avoid any discrepancy.
• Never copy as it is information from some other source. Instead of it read and understand it clearly. After that develop a writing style to summarize all the content regarding that topic in a very short and clear understanding for the readers.
• While collecting your content, do not limit yourself. There are no boundaries to the information. Go on searching and searching until you reach a destination where you will have some best pieces of material chosen with you to include. As a person needs to explore himself/herself one must diversify the ideas too. This can only be achieved through constant searching of resources available.
• In case you do not understand the topic, never ask your friends for their work. Instead of it go to your professor. Take any help. Understand the things clearly. Then frame your own structure to style the topic in your own words rather than copying it.
• Do not procrastinate. When you will hurry to do the work at some last couple of hours or whatever the time is (but less than required to complete the task) one will surely jot down the things as it is available from different sources and this only leads to plagiarism. Take your good time. Research wants flexible time limits than normal writing tasks. Do not compromise with it. Start as early as possible. Giving enough time will get you rid of doing unnecessary mistakes.
• Understand the actual meaning of paraphrasing. It does not mean copying someone else work by using some synonyms or other unambiguous words. Instead of it you need to clearly understand what the writer wants to depict. After that be wise and use your own understanding, skills and vocabulary to frame your writing.
• Before submitting your work it's ideal to check your work if it is plagiarism free or not. Because in case if you do not prefer to do so, and accidentally plagiarism comes into your paper it does not impart a good effect. Some examples to check plagiarism are: Turnitin, Urkund etc. These are some of the recognized tools to check plagiarism. Also while submitting proofread your content to check whether all the information has been provided or not.
• While writing the work always add your own values, thoughts and insights into it. It will also create your work free of plagiarism and along with it fascination will be created in readers mind because of some new variations from the previous published materials.

Why to avoid plagiarism? Know some harmful effects of plagiarism?

• The very first reason to avoid plagiarism is because it is considered unethical as an academic dishonesty.
• Secondly it does not uplift your image. Instead it decreases your professional points because you might considered be a theft who just inculcates other persons thought points and presents as his/her own. A person's professional career does not advance much to heights as it is required or expected.
• By doing so, one will always become dependent on other sources and a point will come when you will be no more able to use your own mind to do something. As it is already in practice, "What you will fetch, will obviously get it back". Same will happen here too. If you will make a habit of cheating or getting dependent on others you will receive the consequences as per your input only. You can never upgrade your personality in your own context.

So every student needs to prevent and avoid plagiarism at all costs

In case you are not avoiding plagiarism various consequences suffered are:

1. For mild plagiarism cases: no penalty or consequences are to be suffered
2. For moderate plagiarism cases: you will score less grades than expected or desired  or the one's which are to be given but due to copying information you will get less.
3. For severe plagiarism cases: You may even be expelled out or hindered to attend specific workshop or seminar etc. (depends on the policy of institution under work)
4. While you plagiarize the resultant article will not be of good quality as it will be a mess of various opinions copied from random sites without making any structure sense. Some people do plagiarize and even not organize it accordingly. So one must avoid doing this.
5. Avoiding plagiarism brings your own identity and makes you more reputed. Also along with it you will become more creative and as you practice more and more with time it will enhance your performance and makes you a better person. Your future will also become bright and all is due to the result of lightening your own ideas and principles. One will also become habitual of doing the task plagiarism free with time.

How to make citation ? 

As an example suppose we have to cite the reference in APA format (commonly used in the field of psychology, medical education and other social science field)

Basic rules of citation are:

• Referencing should be done in alphabetical order.
• While writing the author names, mention the last name of author at first and write his first name either by supporting with the initials or full name as per the journal guidelines
• All the major words of the journal name should be in capital letters and should be italicized
• When writing the title of your own article its first letter should be capital and if there is a colon in its name then the first letter after colon should also be in capital. Never italicize or underline it. It shouldn't be placed in quotation too.
• Name of the publication and its volume number should also be italicized.
• Year of publication is always written in parentheses followed by a period.
• If there are multiple articles starting with same alphabet then arrange them chronologically according to their year of publication.
• There must be a double line space between each reference.

In the End, know some Awesome Assignment Writing Tips To Get Distinction Marks

Let's see how to write a reference in APA style: 

Mahmood, M., Reddy, R. C., Lahari, J. R. S., Fatima, S., Shinde, P., & Reddy, S. A. (2018). Prescription pattern analysis of antidiabetic drugs in diabetes mellitus and associated comorbidities. Clin Investig (Lond), 7, 5-12.

Explanation: Firstly write the names of authors as per rule and shown in example, then the date of publication in parentheses. Indicate a full stop after this. Now write the name of the tile as indicated above. Again indicate a full stop after this. Now write the name of journal which should be italicized, then mention comma and now mention volume of journal in italic terms, again mention comma and now write page number.