Plagiarism and How to Avoid It - Essay Example

?Plagiarism has always worried those who are in the academic world, as the systems demand that must represent their own ideas, efforts and when necessary properly represent other writers’ ideas. Plagiarism involves the use of words and thoughts of others and applying them as if they are your own and without giving proper accreditation to the author or the source where they were found. There are situations when an individual commits plagiarism unintentionally particularly if the individual is careless or is hurrying. It is important to note that whether the individual committed the offence intentionally or otherwise, it does not negate the offence committed, and the individual is guilty of importing another person’s thoughts and words without proper citation (Epigeum n.d.). In all institutions of higher learning especially the Universities, plagiarism is regarded as intellectual theft, and it carries with it stringent penalties and more so if it is done wilfully. The plagiarized article or paper submitted by the student would be declared null and of no importance and the student would be awarded an F grade. In other Universities around the globe, such students would be suspended or expelled from their faculties, but the degree of the penalty varies in relation to intent, from unintentional to pure intent respectively. Therefore, this involves blatant show of ethical misconduct that carries very serious consequence to the writer. There are several types of plagiarism, some of which may include copying of work’s without including the quotations as part of your own work or making minor changes without proper permission or acknowledgement, using pictures or photographs from the internet, rewriting your own work or using the phrases or lines of a song without proper acknowledgement (Epigeum n.d.). In order to avoid plagiarism, it is important to keep a good record of materials, resources, and references that one has used during the note-taking stage. This is the most critical stage as plagiarism is usually not deliberate as a writer might forget to reference the works they have referred to during the research. It is also valuable to differentiate between other person’s quotations and original thoughts and in case a quotation is copied, remembers to record all information that might be needed later on, if the quotations are included in the final work. This not only helps in avoiding plagiarism but also saves time that can be used in proofreading the work (Epigeum n.d.). In addition, the writer must properly proofread his work to remove any plagiarized words and sentences carelessly inserted into the paper. Finally, all other sentences and words in the paper that have been imported from other writers and that the writer feels they might compliment his work should be properly cited. It is vital to write a paper or an article in one’s own words to sustain originality and avoid plagiarizing previous works. Whenever two or more people come together to write a single piece then present the single article as their own individual work, this becomes a type of plagiarism known as collusion. Collusion may also include instances when a writer gets someone else to compose a piece in entirety or in parts and if the writer copies another writer’s work with the consent of the other writer. Allowing others to substantially edit, modify, or correct your work for presentation as individual work is also regarded as collusion that is forbidden and a form of academic dishonesty. Citation and Referencing The traditionally accepted way of acknowledging previous works done by others is by referencing which varies with universities or the disciplines of the subject matter. Before submitting or publishing work, it is therefore important to first be knowledgeable of the type of referencing system that your university or subject-discipline uses. When a writer refers to a certain piece of published work, in the academic environment, the writer is said to have cited the piece, hence citation styles or referencing styles. There are very many citation and referencing styles, with each citation style differing across the different disciplines. Citation styles commonly used are Harvard style, Oxford, MLA (Modern Language), ASA (American Sociological Association), APA (American Psychological Association), Vancouver, MHRA and OSCOLA. These referencing styles differ from each other by their strict and consistent rules. Citation styles and referencing styles dictate to the writer, the best way of referencing other writer’s ideas and thoughts in the writer’s own article. Citation is normally inserted into the main body of the intellectual engagement; this is reflected at the last page of the article, the bibliography page, this is the compilation of references (Cardiff University n.d.). Oxford and the Vancouver system of referencing use a numbers at the end to denote a representation of other authors ideas , whereas the Harvard system use parenthetical style. In Harvard referencing style, when you include someone else’s quotation or paraphrase their work, you include the author’s surname and year of publication at the end of the text that contains the citation e.g., "(Smith, 2000). In case of direct lifted from someone else’s work included in ones work, include the author’s name, the year and page number at the end of the quotation with the actual quotation enclosed in double quotation marks. For instance, in a sentence …the consequences to such actions lead to increase in “the greenhouse gas emission rate which is directly related to the number of industries” (Smith 2013, p. 65). In case some words from the quotation have been omitted in the citation, one should show this with the use of dots, e.g. “Developed countries that want to determine the efficacy of their environmental policies….the greenhouse gas emission rate which is directly related to the number of industries” (Smith 2013, p. 65). Original words that have been included in direct quotations must also be indicated by placing them within square brackets [my own words]. Referencing in Harvard style appears at the end of the work arranged in alphabetical order giving a full description of the works a writer has cited in their text includes the author’s surname, initials of other names, and in case there are more than two authors, show the first author only followed by the words et al, e.g. Smith, A. B.(2013).Air Quality: Toward a Greener Planet. New York: Wordsworth. Smith, A. C. (2013). Air Quality: Toward a Greener Planet. New York: Wordsworth. However, caution should be taken when citing resources from the web in order to get quality work from reliable sources only, e.g. Smith, A. B. (2013). Air Quality: Toward a Greener Planet. New York: Wordsworth [online]. State: Wordsworth. Available at: http://www.green.smith.uk/documents/TAM/2013.pdf [Accessed: 5th June 2013] APA citation and referencing style are very similar to Harvard style except that Harvard includes page numbers in the brackets after the year of publication. Vancouver citation style uses the numeric system where numbers indicating the cited work are inserted in round brackets after punctuation marks. e.g. (1). The same number can be used in cases where sources that are cited more than once at different times in the text. When referencing in Vancouver style the works that have been cited in the text are listed in numerical order e.g. Smith, A. Air Quality: Toward a Greener Planet. City, State: Wordsworth; 2013. This slightly differs from articles cited from journals as they include the volume and pages e.g. Smith A, Smith B Air Quality: Toward a Greener Planet. WJ. 2013; 243:518-7. Electronic journals cited should be referenced at the end of the work with inclusion of the date of publication, the web address and the date accessed e.g. Smith A, Smith B. Air Quality: Toward a Greener Planet WJ. 2013;15 [Accessed: 5 June 2013]. When directly quoting in MHRA style, original work is differentiated from the quoted words using single ‘quotation marks, for instance; The consequences to such actions lead to increase in ‘the greenhouse gas emission rate which is directly related to the number of industries’.1 Referencing at the end of the work includes the author(s), italicized book title, the place, publisher and year e.g. Ann Smith, Air Quality: Toward a Greener Planet. (New York: Wordsworth Books, 2013), p.15. Before I fully understood the concepts and instances that are regarded as plagiarism, I faced various shortcomings particularly concerning citation from online or internet sources. Moreover, I had difficulties in synthesizing information available online and integrating the new information gathered with old or prior ones. Incorrect quotations or paraphrasing of other people’s work led to my accidental or unintentional submission of plagiarized work as an my own. However, through the course I have learnt means of avoiding plagiarism and proper citation methods that have positively transformed my grades in tests. Conclusion Plagiarism is a subject of concern to many in the academic world and efforts have been undertaken to try curbing its prevalence. Many writers have committed this academic offence unintentionally or due to poor understanding of the concept, a trend that can be resolved by fully grasping the coursework and other material sources that discuss plagiarism at length. It is important to understand fully that a properly cited work is the key having an ethically honest academic work. Reference Epigeum. n.d. Plagiarism and How to Avoid it. [Online] Available at: https://researchskills.cf.ac.uk/plagiarism/avoid_plagiarism/index.html [Accessed: 5 June 2013] Cardiff University; Information Services. n.d. Citing References [Online] Available at: http://www.cf.ac.uk/insrv/educationandtraining/guides/citingreferences/index.html [Accessed: 5 June 2013] Read More