Students have to write different types of academic assignments in school. Most of these assignments are based on research work where students have to search for various types of information from different sources to write correct and complete answers. Moreover, with more students getting access to the internet for educational purposes, students have a vast range of information on their hands.
This is where plagiarism creeps in, as it can be tempting to copy the information you have read for writing your answers. At the same time, due to writing lengthy answers for assignments, students have unintentionally copied certain phrases or sentences, you can just check with a duplicate checker, leading to plagiarism issues. And plagiarism is a severe offense in schools!
On that note, here is a brief guide to dealing with plagiarism in your academic assignments and scoring high grades!
What Qualifies as Plagiarism?
According to the popular Oxford dictionary, plagiarism is copying someone else’s content, ideas, or work and presenting it as one’s own. It can also be an act of copying someone else’s work without crediting the original author, adds Merriam Webster’s dictionary. Thus, plagiarism is using another person’s work and passing it off as your own.
Plagiarism is a severe offense in educational institutions. So, how can you avoid plagiarism in your academic answers? Read on to find more!
How to Avoid Plagiarism?
Before I get to the points below, it must be noted that they are mentioned for accidental or unintentional plagiarism. You should not blatantly copy your answers from anywhere, as it will lead to your paper getting canceled. With this being said, let’s look at how you can avoid plagiarism in your answers.
- Give Yourself Sufficient Time to Research
The best way you can avoid plagiarism is by starting early with your assignments. In this way, you will have ample time to research and write your answers in a well-planned way. Most of the time, students copy answers because they don’t have enough time on their hands to write independently. However, when you carry out a thorough, you can simply write for yourself.
You should organize your process to ensure you have enough time for researching, writing, and editing your work. In this way, you can avoid plagiarism by having multiple sources to frame your answers.
- Paraphrase
Sometimes, you will find it difficult to cite sources as you may not find the original source online. This is where you can try paraphrasing the original information in your own words. It would be best if you tried to make sure that no two words from the original passage follow each other, and at the same time, the meaning of the sentence also remains unchanged.
Paraphrasing tool is an easy way to write all your academic answers by referring to sources and stating the original information in your own words.
- Provide References
Suppose you have to copy information from somewhere, for example. In that case, in an academic publication, a research paper, or even a scholarly article, then you will have to cite the original author to avoid plagiarism in your answers. However, there are specific formats for referencing that you have to use.
For this, you can use an online reference generator. For example, if you use the Harvard referencing style, you can use an online Harvard reference generator to cite your papers. Make sure that you follow the correct format for your reference, or you may lose marks for the same.
- Use a Plagiarism Checker
One of the easiest ways to avoid accidental plagiarism in your papers is to use an online plagiarism checker. If you are writing lengthy answers, it can be difficult for you to scrutinize your answers for any traces of plagiarism. This is where an online plagiarism checker can come in useful. You can search for online plagiarism checkers that are free to use and use them to scan your entire answers. This is a simple method to avoid plagiarism in your answers and helps you easily correct individual plagiarised passages.
- Be Creative
Instead of struggling with various types of citations, quotations, and paraphrasing, you can try to present your own ideas. Of course, you will need to have a creative mind, so you should don your thinking cap for this one. Although it may take some time to get used to, eventually, you find it easier to write answers from whatever you have studied and understood from your academic textbooks and other sources.
Final Thoughts
I hope this blog has helped you understand how to deal with the problem of plagiarism in your academic assignments.
Author Bio
Edward Myers is an author, poet, and part-time blogger. He is also associated with MyAssignmenthelp.com as a research paper writer and loves guiding university students with their coursework.
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