Research Tips to Avoid Plagiarism - Plagiarism is the unintentional use of another author's words or ideas. Sometimes plagiarism involves deliberately stealing another's work; too often, this results from carelessness or absent-mindedness. When composing an academic paper, it is essential to build on the work of others and to use multiple sources of data and information. Therefore, properly include sources in your content to avoid plagiarism. To prevent plagiarism, it is essential to reference the primary source of the material. There are several techniques for avoiding plagiarism, including effective time management, developing solid research habits, and accepting responsibility for one's education.
Procrastinating with your research will prevent plagiarism
Quality research demands patience. There is a high possibility that a procrastinator will feel undue pressure to complete the task as time management becomes difficult. Unfortunately, this pressure often results in poor decision-making and sloppy research practices. To limit your chances of submitting plagiarized work, plan your research well in advance and get help from your professors, friends, librarians, superiors, or other support staff on campus.
Commit yourself to work
If homework is difficult to understand, you should consult your lecturer. It is not acceptable to copy the material from the previous one or your friend on the same topic to find a way out of the problem. Group projects are extremely popular in some classes on campus. Make sure you clearly understand when it is appropriate to work in a group on an assignment and submit group work and when the assignment is to be produced through individual effort.
Master the Skills of Effective Interpretation
If you even think of changing words or using synonyms to rewrite a borrowed idea, this would fall within the purview of deliberate plagiarism. The ethical explanation also includes citing the source. Anything less is a dangerous foray into plagiarism territory. Ethical paraphrasing requires you to understand the original material, summarize it using your own words, and quote any unusual words or expressions from the source.
Avoid plagiarism when citing
To quote is to repeat information from a text using similar words. The repeated text should begin in your own words, surrounded by quotation marks, with precise attribution to its original author. Limit the use of citations, and it is permissible to adopt quotation marks when employing the definition as written by the original author. In the act of translation, the original text's meaning should not be changed. You must sacrifice its meaning to interpret a text. However, you are studying the original text's use of language, and you may want to preserve the originality and style in the author's own words.
Record keeping of all sources
A common way to unintentionally plagiarize is to forget where the idea originated and pass it off as your own. The problem can be easily avoided by organizing your text and making a list of references. Specify which ideas are your own and which are not in the text, mark claims that require citations, and place quotation marks appropriately around any language borrowed directly from a source.
