Is your content being stolen by the other writers?

Or

whenever you write content, does it match the content of the other websites?

If this is the case then in this post I am going to share, how to avoid plagiarism.

Brief Introduction

Plagiarism is also defined as literary theft or the act of stealing someone else’s words or work without giving them credit. Thanks to the development of scientific research, plagiarism has become detectable. In particular, the variety of linguistic tools that forensic linguistics makes at our disposal makes it possible to expose those who commit this type of theft. In addition, many software has been developed to facilitate the operation of authorship identification and attribution. Thus, it has become a must that one keeps a watchful eye on what they write down, especially if it is destined to be published. The present essay is going to probe the issue of plagiarism from different angles as it sheds light on its nature, mechanisms, consequences, and how to avoid it.

Two ways in which content is Plagiarized.

Two types of plagiarism should be known. Intentional and unintentional plagiarism. As for the former, it is the conscious act of stealing another author’s words without crediting the source. This means that the one who commits the theft is fully aware that they are stealing. Intentional plagiarism is done for various reasons such as laziness to produce original work and the sense of irresponsibility towards one’s writing. One’s shaky identity could lead them to effortlessly steal the words of better writers.

Unintentional plagiarism is the unconscious act of using another writer’s terms without giving them credit. Most of the time students tend to search for sources that contain authentic information, which they take and attribute to themselves without thinking about the consequences. The reason behind this type of plagiarism could be the lack of awareness of how important quotation marks and mentioned author names are. The mere failure to provide a reference results in plagiarism, regardless of whether or not it is intentional.

What could be considered plagiarism goes beyond the mere borrowing of other authors’ words and ideas. One could be accused of plagiarism once they turn another author’s work into their own, copying someone’s exact words without crediting them, citing incorrect information about sources, stealing other people’s copyright music, images, and videos, and copying online content from one website to theirs. Any use of copyrighted material in an illegal way results in plagiarism.

Why is plagiarism bad?

Plagiarism is a bad habit because it is an unethical behavior. One who does not make efforts to produce unique, authentic, and original work would not reflect the image of an honest writer. Plagiarism is so related to ethics and morality because once done on purpose, it could only defame the perpetrator’s reputation and belittle their potential. Aside from the moral side, plagiarism kills one’s creativity and writing performance, as they become used to the easy copying of ready-made structures and ideas. It is a harmful habit that is conducive to failure in the long run when it comes to an educational career. Moreover, due to plagiarism, many people have ruined their own careers as writers and bloggers.

How to Check for Plagiarism?

Checking for plagiarism could be considered as the immediate solution for writers who are keen on authenticity. Thanks to today’s advancement in research, many software and tools are put at our disposal for the detection of plagiarism. Some of them are free, so it is easy for a writer to check for plagiarism before they submit their work. An essay without plagiarism adds to the credibility of the writer. Research paper writing relies heavily on plagiarism detectors. Checking beforehand whether or not your article is unique is an essential step to avoid unintentional plagiarism. The myriad of available authorship attribution tools will show you how to write a unique article by highlighting the plagiarized text in red color, which you should adjust accordingly. There are two websites that I use for checking Plagiarism and you can use them like Small SEO tools and Copyscape.

Why should you reference it?

The reason why we should reference this is simply to avoid falling into the trap of plagiarism which is harmful in a variety of ways. A failure in referencing could render your piece of writing a stolen property, which infringes the copyright law. One should always cite the sources of the copied work so that they give credit to the original author, on the one hand, and to preserve their credibility, on the other. The readers could no longer trust an unreliable writer who tends to include other people’s work in a manner that does not respect the academic laws and norms.

Unsurprisingly, plagiarism has a wide array of consequences that seem to be harsh enough. The perpetrator of plagiarism runs the risk of destroying their academic reputation, which could lead to the failure to publish their work because it does not respect the academic norms and ethics of research. Plagiarism ruins one’s professional career and deprives them of credibility. As a result, they may lose their jobs. In the case of politicians and famous figures, plagiarism could certainly ruin their names and integrity as well. Besides, copyright laws are serious. Any attempt at their infringement is possibly punishable by fine and prison. Plagiarism is considered as a criminal offense, which makes it an absolute legal issue.

Ways to Avoid Plagiarism

Fortunately, there are some ways that could help us avoid plagiarism. Citing our sources is not all we have to do; we should respect the referencing style we are adopting. Referencing in the APA style is different from the MLA, for example. Falling short of providing correct information about the original source could have serious consequences. Better still, when we like one particular idea that is not ours, we can use it provided that we use quotation marks and cite the author, date of publication, and page number if we would like to keep it in its original shape. Other than quoting, one could avoid plagiarism through the use of paraphrases and summaries, which also necessitate the presence of the author’s name, publication date, and page number for the sake of giving credit to the original source. Such techniques are used for scientific research where one is more responsible for every single word of their work. Thus, your writing should be original, or it could contain quotes, paraphrases, and summaries. In short, there is no room for plagiarism whatsoever.

Conclusion

To recapitulate, plagiarism is a phenomenon that has become widespread, which calls into play the usefulness of various scientific and technological tools to militate against this academic theft that could erode writers’ names, reputations, and integrity. Writers should be attentive to how they borrow other authors’ terms so that they keep plagiarism issues at bay and keep building a reputable identity in academia.