As a student, it is crucial to avoid plagiarizing at all costs. You should have an honest work ethic and should use your own ideas when writing. If you fail to do that, apart from gaining a bad reputation with your teachers there are worse consequences. You can get an “F” for the plagiarized assignment, get suspended or even expelled altogether. However, plagiarism can also happen unintentionally at times. The lines get blurred between the extent of inspiration you are supposed to take from other sources. We have some 7 basic steps here to help you in stay away from plagiarism.
How to prevent plagiarism?
While writing as assignment, a large amount is required to create a sold foundation for it. It is impossible for any student to write on challenging topics without reading other sources. Here things can get a bit tricky, because you can commit plagiarism unknowingly.
Types of plagiarism
You must be aware of the details in order to avoid plagiarism. That is why we have provided the different types plagiarism acts that commonly exist.
 • Intentional plagiarism
Intentional plagiarism is one the most common and severe sort of plagiarism that occurs. It is basically the act of copying another person’s work word by word. And not including any quotation marks or citation. Complete plagiarism can end up in severe punishment such as expulsion.
 • Self-plagiarism
Sometimes students ae assigned a topic that they have worked upon in a previous year or another class. In this situation, a student might submit the exact same essay in both classes. Or use the previously done work without the permission of the teacher. This is categorized as self-plagiarism.
 • Mosaic plagiarism
This type of plagiarism is also known as patchwork plagiarism. It demands a lot more effort in comparison with intentional plagiarism. Here a student will go through various sources, mix them, and change a few words here and there. The original idea stays the same yet the student passes it off as their own by changing a few terms. This is still considered plagiarism as another author’s main idea is stolen.
 • Accidental plagiarism
This can happen mainly due to the negligence of a student. They might leave a source uncited. Misquote the writer of the source or paraphrase the text wrongly. Even if done without malicious intent, it will still affect your grades negatively. In order to avoid this you must cite everything in the correct way. More on this ahead.
 • Inaccurate authorship
Students are often in a rush to get to the end of an assignment. In this case, they give less attention to the business of citation. Not taking citation of seriously can cost you a grade deal. Inaccurate authorship can happen if there are multiple writers of a source but you only mention one of them. Or you mention an entirely different name altogether. These mistakes can be avoided if you pay a careful attention to citation and other content.
Now that we have gone over the basic types of plagiarism, it is time to get to the solution. Our tips are just the thing to keep you from falling in this trap.
1. Begin on time
Procrastination is not the way to go when you have an assignment on hand. Beginning early is always beneficial. In particular it provides you enough time to write an assignment without plagiarism. If you have a stress-free mind, you are less likely to make hasty mistakes.
2. Citation is necessary
You will be needing the use of ideas taken from a literary source often times while assignment writing. Always remember to provide citation of the sources you have taken the quotes, facts or statistics from. However, if including information that is known commonly you do not need citation.
And that is not all. Always use a proper citation method. There are different formats such as MLA, Harvard, Chicago, APA, etc. You must use the one required by your institute. There are often two citation requirements, in-text and a list of references. Read your assignment details carefully which format is expected from you.
3. Including in-text citation
In-text citation, as it must be obvious, is integrated within the body of the paper itself. You need to mention the author’s name, publication year and page number there in parenthesis. The format will vary according to the citation style asked for by your teacher.
4. Adding a reference page
Reference pages are attached at the end of an essay. A reference page contains a complete list of all the sources used in the paper. An effective way to make this list is citing the sources as you write. And not leave it to be done after you have finished the entire paper. Then you can make sure that any resources have not been left out.
5. Quotations
You can also avoid plagiarism by the usage of quotation marks when using text from another source. However, it then becomes your duty to quote the words accurately and refrain from misquoting. This can be the easiest way to give credit where it is due and not be charged for copying ideas.
6. Paraphrase the text
When you find outside content that goes extremely well with your paper, then paraphrase it. This means that you can rewrite the idea in your own words. Go through the original material several times and read carefully. Then use a different structure and words to state the same idea.
7. Plagiarism checker
Once the paper is finished and the final draft has been reviewed, make use of a plagiarism checker. It is always useful to run your work through it to ensure there are no traces of plagiarism. As we have mentioned above it might happen even if you are not aware of it. Therefore, use the plagiarism detecting tools online before submitting to your teacher.
Always remember that plagiarism should be taken seriously and strict measures are taken against those who attempt it. For 100% plagiarism-free essays, reach out to AssignmentTutor for top quality academic content.