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Plagiarism
Plagiarism isn't always a planned out effort to deceive. More often than not, it's an unintended, careless slip-up that can cost students anywhere from a single grade to expulsion from school. Read on to find out what plagiarism is and isn't and how you can avoid accidentally falling into the pitfall of turning in plagiarized work. - What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is intentionally using someone else's language, ideas, or other original material without properly citing the source. This definition extends to the use of any print, online or other sources. One of the most popular methods of plagiarizing comes from directly copying and pasting information from the source into your paper. Be mindful that instructors have tools that can crawl or scan a paper and automatically pickup text that was written by someone else. - What's So Bad About That?
The point of completing any essay, research or term paper is to give your instructors and honest view of your writing abilities and knowledge about the subject matter. If the student is unable to independently develop creative ideas, an opportunity exists to help the student mature academically. Plus, there's the issue of stealing someone else's hard work and research that developed the idea(s) being stolen. - How Do I Avoid Plagiarizing?
Now that you know what plagiarizing is and why you shouldn't do it, avoiding it should be easy. If you opt to use a paper writing service, rest assured. Most reputable services employ similar tools as your instructors to check for plagiarized material. Going it alone? Here are a few more steps you can incorporate to ensure your paper doesn't get flagged for plagiarism:- Every time you directly employ or allude to ideas from other sources, cite it.
- Document your sources during the research process. You may take notes on a particular idea to use in your paper but if you can't refer back to the specific source, you may have a potential plagiarism problem.
- Be careful not to misuse sources. You've found the perfect statistic for your paper. It's in a less than credible source. In your paper, you cite it to a more credible source. It's in the same bag as plagiarism.
- Use online services to check your paper for plagiarized content. Students often plagiarize and aren't even aware of it. Check your paper out before your instructor does. Better safe than sorry.
