Avoid Plagiarism: 17 practical suggestions
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When you are investigating a research question for your assignment and writing your coursework it can be easy to become immersed in the process. When this happens the risk of plagiarism rises.
Learning how to avoid plagiarism and ensure the work you submit is your own is essential to your success.
A lot of your university assignments are based on researching and understanding other people’s work.
When you use other people’s work in your assignments there is a risk of plagiarism unless you follow some simple practices.
What is plagiarism
Plagiarism is using someone’s else work, ideas, or research and presenting it as your own.
When you use the words, ideas, research outcomes, theory or other work published by someone else in your assignment or coursework and fail to acknowledge the source, this is plagiarism.
Why should you avoid plagiarism
Plagiarism is a form of intellectual theft that undermines your learning process, university grades, progression, and your ability to succeed.
Plagiarism violates the principles of academic integrity and ethical behaviour and is a form of academic dishonesty basically means you are stealing from another author.
The penalties for plagiarism can include lower assignment marks, academic suspension, or exclusion from the course.
By avoiding plagiarism, you will demonstrate you have engaged in original research and through appropriate references and citations show your research is built on a robust academic foundation which gives your work credibility.
How to avoid plagiarism
Academic integrity is an important value in your studies at university.
There are several practical strategies that you can employ to ensure you maintain your academic integrity by producing original work that is based on sound research and ethical principles.
1. Cite your sources
Use citations in your essay to give credit for the idea or concept to the original author and this citation should match the reference list or bibliography included at the end of the paper.
Giving the original author acknowledgment that they deserve, and full attribution of the sources you used during your research is vital to your academic integrity and scholarly development.
By correctly including citations in your paper, you will demonstrate to your lecturer that you have identified appropriate sources, understand the content, and can apply it in your own work.
2. Use direct quotations
Citations can be direct quotations.
If you use a direct quote in your assignment, make sure that the statement made by the original author is enclosed in quotation marks and written word for word from the text.
Use quotation marks to indicate it is a direct quote and provide a citation to give credit to the original author.
3. Paraphrase
Citations can be a section of paraphrased text.
Paraphrasing is helpful when working with longer pieces of writing. Just be careful to maintain differences between your paraphrased paper and the original source or this may be a direct quote.
Use your own words to restate the ideas of others and acknowledge the original source through citations and references.
4. Summarise
Citations can be a summary of a source or an extract of a text.
The skill of summarization is an important element in reducing the risk of plagiarism.
If you get into the habit and practice of regularly summarizing the sources you read this will help you better understand the content, start processing the information, and allow ideas and connections to develop and mature.
Summarize the main ideas of a source in your own words and acknowledge the original source through citations and references.
5. Write in your own words
When you read a source, take the time to reflect and summarize the key points in your own words.
Using your own words and phrases to explain an idea or piece of research prevents quotations from being misused or cited incorrectly.
Being unable to phrase a thought is a frustrating feeling. Unfortunately, this leads some students down a path of plagiarism through the repetition of phrases they have encountered in other sources while being completely unaware of it.
Attending writing workshops, using a dictionary and a thesaurus, using the internet to understand the nuances behind some concepts, and practicing your writing are all great ways to improve your writing skills.
6. Follow good notetaking practice
Notetaking isn’t t just for summarising or rephrasing an idea or a piece of information but is a chance to reflect and develop your own views and personal comments on the material.
Notetaking is an important skill that encourages you to develop your own notes and avoid copying word-for-word from sources and risk plagiarism.
Being organised and taking clear, accurate notes while researching and reading can help prevent plagiarism.
What each notetaking system has in common is that they require you to create ordered notes that are distinct from the original text, that require you to process the information you have read and convert it into a format that is original to you.
7. Keep track of the sources you’ve used
Forgetting to write down source information is a common reason that students accidentally plagiarise.
It's really easy for all your notes, source lists, printouts, lecture notes, and all your other material to get mixed up and becomes difficult to separate and identify which is original to you and which notes are from published sources.
Take a methodical approach to your research and reading for each assignment and keep your notes and references stored together.
As you make notes from your research include the references alongside. Capture information about the author’s name, date of publication, and page number when you make notes.
Digital tools can also be beneficial when working on a research project. Using a program like Excel, RefWorks, EndNote, and OneNote can complement the notetaking method you choose and make the notetaking process accurate and streamlined.
8. Use a range of sources
Use more than one source when researching your subject otherwise, your assignment may end up with the same tone and views as the source.
This will be easily recognisable by your lecturer.
A single source increases your risk of plagiarism.
9. Use an Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography can help you develop your original notes, capture all the source information, and build a record of your research activities.
Start the bibliography as part of your search process and then continue to build on it as you review and add new sources to the list and make your notes on each source.
The annotated bibliography is evidence of the research you’ve conducted, the sources you’ve used and encourages you to make your own notes and translate the author’s concepts into your own words.
All help to limit the risk of plagiarism.
10. Present your own ideas
In all your assignments, coursework, and research activities make sure to always present your own ideas.
Cheating is the most basic form of plagiarism and there is no excuse for it.
Don’t be tempted to use a friend’s research paper from a similar class on the same topic, buy a paper online, and recycle work you have already submitted.
Not only does it make you look bad, but it very well might jeopardise your academic studies and future career.
11. Don’t cut & paste into your assignment or notes
Never copy directly from sources into your notes or assignment unless you are directly quoting.
12. Analyse and synthesize information
It takes practice to be able to draw on ideas and concepts from many different researchers and authors and distill their message into your own words.
Analysing multiple sources and synthesising the information in the context of your research question adds value to your writing.
When you combine multiple ideas or results from different authors or research studies you must do this in your own words and therefore limits the risk of plagiarism.
13. Manage your time
Poor time management can lead to rushing the research and writing for an assignment, not taking proper notes, noting the references for each source or writing the ideas in your own words.
Each of these items can lead to plagiarising another’s work.
Give yourself enough time to complete your work so that you are not tempted to cut corners by plagiarizing.
This means giving yourself enough time for researching, taking notes, cross-checking your notes, formulating your thesis, writing, and then editing your assignment.
14. Add citations to your writing as you write
As you write your assignment include citations eg. Gardiner (2022) as you write. This will ensure you give the appropriate credit to the right authors and limit the risk of plagiarism.
15. Use a plagiarism checker
Use plagiarism checker tools such as Turnitin or Grammarly to check your work for unintentional plagiarism.
Universities use tools or software such as Turnitin, Plagiarism Detector, and Dupli checker to prevent plagiarism, these will be integrated into your learning management system like Canvas or Moodle so you can easily check before submission.
16. Proofread before submission
At the end of the writing process read through your assignment with a critical eye.
Check that any mention of secondary research is connected with a citation and reference.
Make sure that the tone of voice and writing style is always yours. If there is a section that doesn’t read smoothly you may want to ask yourself if this is your writing or paraphrased from somewhere else.
All direct quotations, paraphrasing, and summaries should include an in-text citation and entry in the reference list or bibliography for the assignment.
Create your Reference List by cross-checking all the in-text citations you have included and create a corresponding alphabetical list of sources and their full bibliographic reference.
17. Learn to recognise “common knowledge”
Facts and everyday actions represent common knowledge. This is the information you can include in your research without citing a source.
Common knowledge is publicly known by nearly everyone, especially within the community in which this knowledge is referenced. It can be about a wide range of subjects and topics.
However, if you’re using someone’s opinion regarding a fact, then you need to cite your source. This is because you’re going beyond what the words someone said and are analysing what they think of them. Their opinion is the foundation upon which you’re building your research.
It’s essential to research common knowledge before determining that a fact or common saying is one. For example, some researchers don’t do enough research, discarding some sentences as common knowledge. In fact, these can be direct quotes that need to be cited, but they simply weren’t able to research the topic thoroughly enough to reach the original author.
Summary
All the books, journals, lectures, and other sources you might use at university were created by someone else.
You will use the intellectual property from these sources when you write your assignments.
But when you use the words, ideas, or research of others in your assignment you must give them credit through citations and references.
Without proper recognition of original creators, you risk serious consequences academically.
Possible outcomes include earning a low or failing grade on the assignment, removal from or failure of the course, or even disciplinary action such as suspension from the university.
Any time you find useful information from an outside source (something that is not common knowledge), try to write the notes in your own words, limit the times you write direct quotations, and always include the citation and full bibliographic information alongside in your notes.
