Types of Plagiarism and How to Avoid Them Easily

During college and university education, professors give students a large number of written papers. It can be an essay, an analytical review, or a research paper. The more a student writes, the greater the risk of facing plagiarism, even unintentional. It is an attempt to present someone else's work as your own. In this case, it is possible to borrow a single sentence or the entire text. You can find out how this will result and how to avoid plagiarism below.

Plagiarism and Its Consequences

If plagiarism is detected during a review of a student’s work, the teacher will inevitably use various kinds of sanctions. The punishment will depend on several criteria. They include:

  • the teacher’s attitude toward plagiarism;
  • the scope of the borrowed text;
  • the internal rules of the educational institution.

As a punishment, the teacher may suspend the student from classes or request expulsion from the university/college. If a researcher or journalist has been found to have plagiarized, their reputation will be irrevocably ruined. Therefore, it is necessary to check all texts before turning them in, even if you have used essay writing service to prepare the required paper. This will minimize the risk of problems due to possible borrowing of sentences or entire paragraphs.

Types of Plagiarism

There are several types of plagiarism, which differ in the way the text is borrowed. Some of them can be considered a simple oversight when a student did not proofread the text or missed certain points. Others are actual literary theft. Familiarize yourself with the main types of plagiarism to avoid mistakes.

Complete Copying

It is vicious copyright infringement when a student completely copies someone else’s work and deliberately passes it off as his own essay, analytical research, and other types of student tasks. Personal ideas are sometimes added to stolen intellectual property, but their percentage is so small that it makes it impossible to judge the student’s experience and level of preparation.

Partial Rewriting

To cheat, some students use partial word substitutions in the assigned text. Even though some work has been done, the pages end up expressing the thoughts of somebody else. These things are not appreciated by teachers and do not bode well.

Fake Citation

This type of plagiarism implies that the student provides references to works that have nothing to do with the text. Sometimes students cite non-existent sources to create a capacious introduction. But forging citations is simple dishonesty.

Purchasing Ready-Made Papers

Many educators believe that buying ready-made papers or ordering them on a required topic is plagiarism, even in the case where the author has abandoned his work. This is due to the fact that the student does not provide his own thoughts, ideas, and thesis.

Self-Plagiarism

Some students go out on a limb and provide professors with their old work. On the one hand, there is nothing wrong here. The student expressed his thoughts, defended his point of view, and came to a certain conclusion. But the work has already been graded, and therefore it is impermissible to turn it in again.

Unintentional Plagiarism

Unintentional plagiarism is an element of borrowing from another text when a student does not specifically plan to adopt someone else’s thoughts and phrases. But because of his inexperience, he was not able to refine the text qualitatively, and as a result, the teacher discovered a small percentage of plagiarism. Such situations occur when students incorrectly prepare quotations from famous authors, after which the elements act as borrowed phrases. Even though it is difficult to understand all the nuances at once, it will be much easier when doing another paper. The main thing is to make notes and review them when drawing up a new text.

How to Check for Plagiarism?

To make sure there is no plagiarism, use specialized services to check it. These can be both online sites and downloadable applications for cell phones. Programs are configured to find sure signs of plagiarism: matching words and analysis of the meaning of the text.

The essence of the tool is as follows:

  • you load the text into a special window;
  • click the button for verification;
  • wait for the end of the process and display the results.

The program checks huge amounts of information, taking no more than a couple of minutes. This allows you to save a lot of time and quickly make sure of the quality of the text. If the service finds plagiarism, it will highlight the matches. Think about how best to change the text so that it will be perfect the next time it is checked.

How to Avoid Plagiarism?

To avoid plagiarism, follow simple recommendations. This will help you create a text that doesn’t need any revision the first time. Some of the basic tips include:

  • if possible, let third parties (relatives, friends) read the text;
  • take notes, finding dates and phrases in the source to cite;
  • keep a balance. Your paper should have your own thoughts and ideas backed up by facts.

The recommendations are simple enough, so you can easily follow them. In the end, the work will be done at the highest level, and plagiarism will not make itself known. This is necessary to save time and complete tasks without any modifications.

Conclusions

Plagiarism is unacceptable when writing texts. It indicates that your work is borrowed from another source. If you do not want to have problems with teachers or university administration, check texts in a timely manner and eliminate mistakes. To do this, use specialized online services or downloadable applications. They will make you forget about the problems with uniqueness, and you will be confident in the quality of your texts.