How To Avoid Plagiarism In Academic Writing With Simple Plagiarism Prevention Tips

If you have ever written an academic paper in your life, then no one knows better than you the importance of plagiarism prevention. Every year, thousands of papers are rejected because of plagiarism issues in Australia, even papers that were otherwise good. You must also know that plagiarism is easily detectable nowadays, thanks to plagiarism checker software. It is essential to avoid plagiarism, as it violates the fundamentals of academic writing/academic integrity. A plagiarized work holds no credibility whatsoever, and even a slight oversight can lead to a paper being flagged as plagiarized. Anyway, all of that sounds scary, but did you know that plagiarism is quite easy to avoid? If you didn’t know that, let us explain to you how to avoid plagiarism in academic writing and how to master quoting and paraphrasing correctly.

What is Plagiarism?

The definition of plagiarism is something you should know very well if you want to avoid it. The basic definition of plagiarism would state that it is the act of stealing someone else’s work or ideas without crediting them for inspiration. It’s not just about copying entire paragraphs from someone else’s paper, but not acknowledging any information that you didn’t develop is sufficient to qualify as plagiarism.

By now, you probably understand that plagiarism can also happen unintentionally. In fact, unintentional plagiarism is one of the most common reasons behind most papers being rejected upon submission. However, we know that you are not trying to actively steal from someone else; it is unintentional plagiarism that you mainly seek to avoid. Don’t worry, we will help you avoid doing so in the upcoming sections.

Why is Avoiding Plagiarism Important?

We think that at this point, you know why it is important to avoid plagiarism; however, there are many reasons that people tend to overlook. It is important to avoid plagiarism in academic writing because of the following reasons:

Maintains Academic Integrity and Trust

Any educational paper is aimed at contributing new knowledge and showcasing your academic abilities. If you use plagiarism, then it completely undermines your educational skills. Academic integrity is the main reason why you should avoid plagiarism in academic writing.

Protects your Reputation and Career

As a student, plagiarism will lead to you losing marks. As a professional, however, plagiarism will result in your paper being rejected, which will permanently label you as a thief. If you have ever wondered why so many people want to know how to avoid plagiarism, this is one of the main reasons why.

Upholds Copyright and Intellectual Property Laws

Plagiarism is not just an ethical wrongdoing, but also a legal one. If your research is flagged for having plagiarized work, then the original owner of the research could sue you for plagiarism. Don’t worry, though, as there are strategies to avoid plagiarism penalties that we’ll discuss soon.

Fosters Genuine Learning and Skill Development

Perhaps the most important reason for avoiding plagiarism is that it will directly help you become a better researcher. Think about this: writing an academic paper is a task that showcases your skills and abilities. By avoiding plagiarism, you will only develop your academic writing ability and improve as a researcher. Plus, you will also avoid the consequences of plagiarism.

Proven Strategies on How to Avoid Plagiarism

As we stated earlier, avoiding plagiarism is not nearly as difficult as some people think. Realistically, to avoid plagiarism in academic writing, certain strategies have proven to be the most effective. Let us look at some of the proven strategies to avoid plagiarism that you can use to reduce your chances of running into plagiarism issues.

Understand the Source Material

If you don’t know what the source is trying to say, then it is guaranteed that you will not be able to paraphrase correctly. First, understand the source material, and then you can begin referencing the source in your own words.

Paraphrase Effectively

Sometimes you might find a piece of information that you have to reference directly, but don’t know how to do that without compromising academic integrity. All you have to do is paraphrase correctly, and you can safely avoid plagiarism issues. If you don’t know how to paraphrase accurately, then you can use online paraphrasing tools to help yourself.

Quote Correctly

Quotation marks are necessary, as you cannot even allude to a foreign source if you quote more than three words. Mastering the skill of quoting and paraphrasing correctly is key to avoiding plagiarism in academic writing.

Cite Sources Properly

One of the most commonly stated plagiarism prevention tips is to pay very close attention to your citations. It doesn’t matter if it is in-text citations or the bibliography; you have to make sure that your references are matched and properly formatted.

Use Plagiarism Checkers

There are plagiarism detection tools that you can use to find out the rate of plagiarism in your paper. While the reliability of these tools is debatable, as different tools give different results for the same paper, they can still be used to give you a good idea of your paper’s originality.

Take Original Notes

While conducting research, you must make notes whenever you find a piece of information that you think might be useful. It is one of the most useful strategies to avoid plagiarism, as making notes will also help you format your citations better in the bibliography.

What are the Common Mistakes that lead to Plagiarism?

Unfortunately, even with the best intentions, it is still possible to unknowingly include plagiarized content in your work. Unintentional plagiarism often leads to a loss of marks in assignments or the rejection of your thesis. Here are some of the most common mistakes that can lead to unintentional plagiarism.

Patchwriting (Inaccurate Paraphrasing)

Patchwriting occurs when you paraphrase a sentence but only shuffle a few words around, and the sentence structure basically remains the same. This mistake can be easily avoided by quoting and paraphrasing correctly, which you can do by using online paraphrasing tools.

Forgetting Quotation Marks

Even if you use three words from a source, you will have to quote them using quotation marks. Students, often those who are new to academic writing, make the mistake of copying the source’s content without using quotation marks. Always remember that quoting and paraphrasing correctly is your strongest defense against plagiarism penalties.

Mismanaging Citations

If you didn’t already know this, then drill it into your skull that both the idea and the direct source have to be cited. Simply citing the actual content while blatantly copying the idea still counts as plagiarism. Also, remember to use the proper citation style as required by your assignment.

Self-plagiarism

This mistake can often be observed in essays. Some students think that they can reuse their own content because they created it; however, that is not how plagiarism detection works. It is only detected if your copied content matches the content of your previously submitted works. If you want to avoid self-plagiarism in your essays, then it is advised that you get assistance from an essay writing service.

Which Tools and Resources can help you avoid Plagiarism in Academic Writing?

As stated earlier, there are online plagiarism detection tools that can very easily identify the level and prevalence of plagiarism in a document. This obviously makes it more difficult for people to get away with plagiarism in recent years. However, you don’t need to fear these plagiarism checker tools, as you can work with them to avoid plagiarism in academic writing. Here are some tools that you can use to overcome plagiarism issues with ease.

Plagiarism Checkers

You can use plagiarism checker tools that will help you detect the prevalence of plagiarism in the form of a percentage in your document. Some of the most common plagiarism detection tools include Grammarly, Turnitin, Quillbot, etc.

Citation Management Software

Citation manager tools can help you organize your research, and they will also generate perfectly-formatted citations and bibliographies. They are highly recommended if you are worried about missing citations or formatting incorrectly. Examples include Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote.

Online Citation Generators

Unfortunately, citation management software can be expensive; however, there is a cheaper alternative. All you need to do is input the source detail along with the proper citation style, and a citation generator will give you the formatted citation near instantaneously.

Style Guides and University Resources

Do you want to know how to avoid plagiarism? Well, there’s no better way than to master the skill of academic writing. You can use free resources like Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) to learn how to use citations correctly and how to use quoting and paraphrasing correctly. Also, you can simply seek university resources that can help you learn how to build good writing habits.

How can Students build Good Writing Habits?

Avoiding plagiarism becomes easier if your writing habits are good. If you are new to academic writing, you might not understand how good writing habits correlate with avoiding plagiarism. However, the question of ‘How to avoid plagiarism?’ can easily be answered by improving your writing skills. Here is how students can build good writing habits that allow them to avoid the consequences of plagiarism.

Separate Drafting, Editing, and Citing

 Never try to write and edit your paper at the same time. It is okay to finish writing the paper first and then spend time editing it and adding citations. You can separate your workflow into three separate phases that should not overlap: drafting, editing, and citing.

Master the Outline First

One of the biggest academic writing mistakes you can make is to begin writing without an outline. To be fair, this creates a lot of openings for plagiarism issues to slip in. First, you should map out your central thesis statement, the topic sentence for every body paragraph, and the key evidence that you will use to support each topic sentence.

Practice active Note-taking

Plagiarism takes root almost always during the research phase. This is why it is absolutely important that you make notes while doing research and list every source before you decide to use it in your work.

Write in Consistent, Scheduled Bursts

Don’t try to write like you are in a writing marathon. Plan your time accordingly and focus on short, concentrated periods of time for writing. If you want to learn how to manage your time accordingly while writing, then you can read about some of the most effective time management skills you can learn to manage time effectively while writing.

Final Checklist Before Submission: What to do just before submitting your project?

Something you need to keep in mind regarding plagiarism is that a last-minute check can really benefit you if you want to avoid plagiarism penalties. Just before making your final submission (assuming you have enough time), you need to review your document to see if any errors can be considered a violation of academic integrity.

Rerun the Prompt and Rubric Check

Before submitting your assignment, make sure to check whether or not your work adheres to the rubrics. Adherence to the rubrics is equally important in avoiding plagiarism as is mastering academic writing. Make sure that you have cited all sources properly with the proper citation styles as prescribed.

The Plagiarism Integrity Sweep

This process requires you to identify and eliminate errors that would otherwise get you flagged for academic dishonesty. You need to first make sure that you have done the quoting and paraphrasing correctly. Then see if you have accidentally plagiarized your own previous work.

Run the Similarity Checker

After you have done the integrity check by yourself, you should use a reliable plagiarism detection tool to see if your work falls within the acceptable similarity parameters of your university. If you know which plagiarism checker tool your university uses, then you should try using that one.

Final Citation and Reference List Review

Lastly, check your citations and bibliography to see if you have kept the style and format uniform throughout the entire section. Also, make sure that your bibliography matches your in-text citations, or you could get in trouble for mismatched references.

Conclusion

Have you ever wanted to know ‘How to avoid plagiarism?’ Well, there you have it! By now, we believe that you understand how important it is to write your academic papers in such a way that you avoid plagiarism, whether intentional or not. Avoiding copying and pasting, using quotations and paraphrasing correctly, and employing proper citation styles are things you need to keep in mind while practicing academic writing. If you want to see an example of a plagiarism-free academic paper, then you can get your assignment done by Do My Assignment Australia and see for yourself how a plagiarism-free paper is written.