How One May Plagiarize and Ways to Avoid Plagiarism - Essay Example

?[Your full full July 23, Plagiarism Plagiarism refers to the act of copying or using the ideasof others without referring to the original source. For example, if a person writes a report or an essay and copies some relevant statements from other sources, such as, internet articles, encyclopedias, books, magazines, government documents, and publications, without mentioning the sources of those statements both within the essay and in the page of references, it means that the person has done plagiarism in his/her paper. Plagiarism is considered an academic crime in academic settings. There is no school, college, or university anywhere in the world that does not discourage the act of plagiarism. The reason is that plagiarism is an academic crime that violates the rules and ethics of creative writing. Such detection tools are available that can easily detect whether a student has copied something from somewhere or not. As Sumerset states, “with plenty of tools that can spot copied, repurposed or coopted text, attempting to plagiarize other people's material can be an exercise in nothing but getting caught red-handed”. Some colleges and universities even expel such students who commit the act of plagiarism. Such strict standards discourage students from doing any kind of plagiarism in their personal essays and reports. Let us now discuss the ways one may plagiarize in his/her papers, reports, and other documents. How One May Plagiarize Plagiarism is basically of three to four types. Sometimes, writers do not even know that they are plagiarizing or not. However, when they get the results, they get to know the fact that they have plagiarized unknowingly. The best way to detect the occurrence of any sort of plagiarism is to use some plagiarism detection software that can check whole document for plagiarism. One of the main ways a person can plagiarize is by forgetting to put direct quotations within inverted commas. Use of inverted commas for direct quotations or sentences from web and non-print sources is a basic rule regarding plagiarism. Some people forget this rule and commit plagiarism. For example, if a person copies a sentence from somewhere and pastes it in his/her own paper without putting the sentence within inverted commas and mentioning the name of the author and the page number at the end of the sentence and in the references page, it will be plagiarism. Another way through which a person can plagiarize is by changing the words of the copied sentence thinking that changed wording does not cause plagiarism. It is true but for short sentences. Sometimes people try to write whole paragraphs using their own words and in the same order of sentences. However, they do not mention the source of the paragraph at the end of the paragraph. This is called paragraph paraphrasing and is plagiarism if not cited properly. Sometimes people just change the order of the words of the copied sentences. They are not aware of the fact that changing the order of the words does not change the original wording of the sentence. This is called Mosaic plagiarism, which occurs due to lack of knowledge of referencing rules (Rajeev). For example, if a copied sentence is ‘A mouse was under the table’. Now, if a person changes it to ‘Under the table was a mouse’, it will be mosaic plagiarism. Ways to Avoid Plagiarism Plagiarism is an act of cheating which not only harms a student’s creative writing ability but also affects the reputation of the institute if the paper of the student is caught for plagiarism at any platform. One can take ideas of others for writing a report or any other document but he/she should always mention the original source of that information or ideas in order to make the use of those ideas legal. Moreover, it is not sufficient to mention the source of the information only within the text of the paper. Failing to include complete reference/source in the references page also results in plagiarism. Some people mention the source of the information only in the references page, which also results in plagiarism. The reason is that citing the source needs to be done in the references/works cited page, as well as within the text of the paper. This is the best possible way to avoid being caught for plagiarism. Another important point to mention is that paraphrasing the statements of others also requires proper citation both within the text of the paper and in the references page. Some students think that writing the information from other sources in their own words does not imply to the act of plagiarism because they have not copied the statements in their original sentence structures. The perception of such students is wrong because paraphrasing a large amount of text from a single source also results in plagiarism. Students need to mention the page numbers, year, and name of the author at the end of the paraphrased text, as well as in the references page in proper format. The thing is that information needs to be cited in the paper whether it is in its original form or it is in the paraphrased form. Given below are both ways to cite a source in a paper. 1. If a statement is included in a paper in its original form, then it should be inserted within inverted commas. Moreover, the source of the statement should be mentioned at the end of the statement, as well as in the references page. 2. If a statement is included in a paper in its paraphrased form, then it should not be inserted between inverted commas but needs to be referenced properly both at the end of the statement and in the references page. These were some of the ways I would use to avoid committing plagiarism in my reports, exams, and other documents. Apart from these ways to avoid plagiarism, I would also use some plagiarism detection software to detect the occurrence of plagiarism. As Pereyra states, “this software helps you see how much of you work actually belongs to someone else and gives you the opportunity to avoid plagiarism by giving you a chance to change it”. Such software products are easily available online. So, I would download one of them to use it for checking any sort of plagiarism in my papers. Works Cited Pereyra, Sergio. “Ways to Avoid Plagiarism.” Ezinearticles.com, 22 May 2009. Web. 23 Jul. 2012. Rajeev, Loveleena. “Different Types of Plagiarism.” Buzzle.com, 18 Jul. 2012. Web. 23 Jul. 2012. Sumerset, Jane. “How to Avoid Plagiarism.” Ezinearticles.com, 28 Oct. 2009. Web. 23 Jul. 2012. Read More