Strategies to Avoid Plagiarism

When you write a research paper, you have to come up with your own ideas. Plagiarism is when you use someone else’s ideas and say that they come from you. Even if you didn’t copy the words from the original but you only rephrase them this is plagiarism. It is a huge problem on college campuses. Many people are confused about plagiarism and how to fix it, however if you follow these steps you can avoid it.

The first step is to paraphrase, which is taking information from other works and putting it in your own words. You can do it when you find good information for the research paper by reading the information and put it in your own words. However be careful not to copy everything word for word and don’t copy more than a few words from the original work. Focus on the meaning of the work and find a new way to say it. Paraphrasing is one of the most important ways to avoid plagiarism.

The second step is to cite what you get from outside sources by finding what kind of format you should use, such as APA or MLA. Citing is important because it gives credit to the author. This will help you to avoid plagiarism. Don’t forget to put the name of the person who said it, and the date of the publication. If you have doubt of anything you then cite your sources, but before you do that you need to make sure that you analyze and evaluate your sources.

The third step is you quote what the author says like how it appears. You have to put the page number, and the paragraph number when the information comes from the internet or from something else. This will help further give credit to the author.

Some other ways it can be good is to talk with your instructor, take notes, do an outline, ask for help, check and re-check your work with someone to see if everything is ok, and don’t be afraid to say your opinion.

      In conclusion, be sure that you corrected your research paper carefully to check for plagiarism before you give it to the instructor. If you follow these steps you will avoid plagiarism. Paraphrasing and putting things in your own words is important to avoid plagiarism. The good thing about citing your sources is that you give credit to the author, making it easy for the readers to find where you got the information. The universities can check if you plagiarized or not with a checker software to check the students’ papers. If you plagiarized you can lose your academic degree or your job and it can lead to embarrassment. Thus, it is important to make sure you avoid plagiarism.