How To Protect Your Academic Work From Plagiarism

Protecting academic work is necessary but difficult. Professors, tutors, and students face the challenge of plagiarism. 

Not only because other students do it, but also because sometimes the source material can fail them too. That’s why research is a necessity in any academic setting. 

So, suppose you’re setting out on writing an extended and research-based essay. In that case, you might be worried about your content being duplicated by someone. 

Or worse, someone taking it and presenting it as their own.  However, that doesn’t have to be the case, as there are ways to protect your academic work from plagiarism. 

Not only from the content being plagiarized but also from your own work featuring any accidental plagiarism. Therefore, just how and where do you begin? 

In order to protect your work from any unwanted plagiarism, you need to find it out first—then git rid of it. So, let’s find out how. 

Why It’s Necessary To Avoid Plagiarism 

The writing quality in academic settings is higher than in any other. Creative writing requires a writer to be as creative as possible. On the other hand, professional writing, i.e., SEO or online articles, require the writer to be as informative as possible.

However, academic writing is a sum of all those elements. It needs you to be creative, informative, and formulate research-based pieces. 

Now, the basic definition of plagiarism is “presenting someone else’s work as your own.” So, that one quote annuls everything mentioned above.

It strays out of the boundaries of creativity and commits duplicity. The content removes itself from the research-based category based on its theft of ideas. 

And, the informative value is hurt the most, as there’s no research or data/material from which the content originates.

All these elements make plagiarism a highly unethical practice in any academic setting. Whether a professional or a student, they can all suffer from worse implications throughout their careers because of plagiarism.

Besides bad grades and tarnished reputations, a student will be dubbed “unethical” by fellow students and subordinates. So, that’s why it’s a bare necessity in academies to avoid plagiarism. 

5 Ways To Protect Your Academic Writing From Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an unethical and immoral practice; we know that much. However, what can you do to avoid it? 

Since plagiarism can ruin a student’s progress in many ways, it’s imperative to formulate a post-writing procedure to ensure the originality of your academic writing.

So, to protect your work from plagiarism, it’s necessary that you mention your sources. Moreover, using your own words and remarks to present an existing idea is yet another necessity. 

Lastly, you need to detect plagiarism and get rid of it after you’re done writing.

So, how do you go about doing all this? Here are five ways to avoid plagiarism from your academic writing: 

  1. Mention Your Resources 

Whenever you write research-based pieces for academic purposes, the key lies within that term “research-based.” So, you have had to research from existing material, i.e., textbooks, manuscripts, online resources, etc. 

So, where exactly did you take that information from? That’s what teachers and educators like to know when they pass academic or research papers. 

In order to ensure that you’re not committing any plagiarism, you need to mention your sources. 

By doing so, you accredit the original work and the author. All the while ensuring that your content steers away from plagiarism. 

  1. Write Using Your Own Words

This process is not as complicated as it may sound. It takes time, yes, but using your own words to describe something cannot be difficult. So, if the original work features something like this:

I avoid plagiarism by rewriting unwanted phrases and terms

Then, you can rephrase that while keeping the same idea, such as this:

Getting rid of unnecessary phrases and terms is my way of avoiding plagiarism

You can notice how the central idea is the same: avoiding plagiarism. However, different word usage ultimately ensures that the content isn’t a carbon copy of its predecessor. 

This is a common and an ethical practice. So, use your own words to describe things in your academic papers.

  1. Check For Plagiarism

The best way to find plagiarism is to go for a plagiarism check . Using a content’s originality checker ensures that you find any irregular or unwanted duplicity in your content. Many writers employ this procedure to ensure avoiding plagiarism. 

Since a plagiarism-checking tool has access to vast databases, it can help you detect plagiarism within a few seconds. Tools such as this can also help you understand the plagiarism percentage in your content.

So, by getting rid of one percent at a time, you can eliminate plagiarism from your work. All you need to do is use a tool to check for plagiarism and find the accidental duplicity in it.

  1. Paraphrase Content 

Once you find plagiarism in your content, it’s necessary to get rid of it. However, doing so requires you to rephrase or reword your content. That’s when you need a paraphrasing tool or assistant to rewrite your content.

These paraphrasing tools are readily available for free, with the ability to rephrase a few hundred words at a time. 

You can use them to avoid plagiarism and ensure that your content stays original. Moreover, using such programs can also help you improve your content’s tone.

  1. Quote Where Needed

Quoting is a necessary process of avoiding plagiarism. If you’re afraid your content might have some degree of copied content, then quote the original author. 

Doing this will help your educator understand that you studied the content from a source.

Source link: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/quotation-marks/

This way, they can study the source, ensure the integrity of the content—, and know that you quoted/accredited the original author/source. 

Therefore, you need to make sure you quote throughout your paper wherever needed.

Conclusion

These fundamental essentials can help protect your academic work against plagiarism. Using such tactics ensures your content’s originality and helps you avoid any unwanted plagiarism.