If you have developed some technique and someone publishes his research or academic article using your technique without acknowledging you. How upset would you be? How would you feel after seeing someone uses your work without giving you credit? This makes your contribution meaningless. Plagiarism uses the same logic. It is not about copying the ideas but not acknowledging the original author’s work and his contribution to the field. You use different sources to gather information when you work on research papers and academic assignments. Plagiarism is unacceptable in any writing, and professors don’t accept plagiarized work. So you have to be very careful while writing assignments. This article is for you; if you want to know the ways to prevent plagiarism in assignment, what are the consequences and why one must avoid it.
Using someone else’s ideas and thoughts and presenting them as your thoughts is a kind of theft and are considered unethical. You are stealing others’ academic stuff, which is considered academic misconduct. Some tips that you can use to prevent plagiarism in assignment are listed in this article.
Best ways to avoid plagiarism:
Writing is an important part nowadays of academic and professional life. We have to make reports, assignments or presentations about specific subjects or topics assigned by our professors or managers. These writings should be plagiarism-free. While writing, follow the tips mentioned below to prevent plagiarism in assignment.
Don’t copy:
Use references instead of copying someone’s work.
Try to ensure that you don’t use other people’s ideas and work. Avoid using the cut and paste technique while writing your assignments. This is one of the main reasons why you get plagiarism complaints in your research, as you have copied someone’s research work as it is and haven’t cited the author at all.
Use a range of sources:
Using various sources and reading about a topic broadly shows that you can describe your opinion based on your reading. While using comprehensive resources, ensure that you write content based on your understanding and cite it. You have various important online and print sources, so don’t stick with only one source or website.
Use quotation marks:
If you want to use research from another author’s work for your assignment, use quotation marks in your research work to specify the content you are using from another researcher in a direct quote. Direct quotes can be used in your research paper but ensure that you use them sparingly and don’t use complete paragraphs.
Paraphrase the original text in your own words and cite the source:
Rephrasing someone else’s ideas and thoughts is not included as plagiarism. You can use this technique as the most suitable way to prevent plagiarism in assignment, but you need to express your opinion in your own words. While paraphrasing, Read the content you want to include in your assignment and then write it based on your understanding of what you have read. Writing someone else’s ideas in your understanding and words is okay, but ensuring that you use your own words to write the context citing them will add another assurance that no plagiarism is detected.
Make quality notes:
Making notes is another good technique to prevent plagiarism in assignment. Try making notes from the sources you are using and add direct quotes using the source’s reference; this will help you avoid accidental plagiarism. Before writing your assignment, make a draft of your notes and use them in your assignment instead of original sources. Using online tools like Endnote Web, it’s easy to keep track of your references.
Citing your source correctly:
Use in-text citation whenever you use someone else’s idea, which displays the source’s full name with the published date and other relevant information. It acknowledges the source and help avoids plagiarism, and gives access to your readers about the original source for more knowledge. There are many citation styles; you can use, especially the style that your instructor assigned you.
Present your idea:
Keep thinking about your assignment’s topic and what your instructor has asked you. Ask yourself what will be its unique perception. Explore what can you add to your assignment instead of narrating someone else’s ideas or words. It will also be beneficial for you to improve your critical thinking skills, and by presenting your own ideas and thoughts, you can prevent plagiarism in assignment.
Use plagiarism checker:
If you are not confident about your writing and paraphrasing skills, you can take help from plagiarism checking tools.
By using these tools, you can easily identify plagiarism in your assignment. Some tools can also identify the original sources. These checker tools help you identify if you plagiarised something so you can rephrase it again.
Why should plagiarism be avoided?
It is imperative to prevent plagiarism in assignment. First of all, displaying someone else’s technique or idea as your own is dishonesty. According to the UK assignment writing service, plagiarism is indeed an act of academic dishonesty and academic misconduct. Secondly, by stealing others’ ideas, you don’t learn anything. When your professors assign you a task, they want you to complete it using your skills and knowledge so that you can use critical thinking to conduct research and formulate your paper.
Plagiarism has serious consequences, and students should be aware of them. Your professor can reject your assignment, you can face academic probation, or might be that you will be suspended from the institution. It depends upon your professor’s or university’s policy. Furthermore, it can destroy your reputation academically as well as professionally.
Conclusions:
Plagiarism is one of the leading causes of academic misconduct and has severe consequences. This article has listed many useful techniques to prevent plagiarism in assignment. These suggestions can be very helpful for students struggling to identify the issues that lead to plagiarism. Most students accidentally create plagiarized assignments because they don’t know how to overcome the dependence on someone else’s work. So it makes students more conscious of their writings. It is better to improve your writing as well as critical thinking skills. Try to make plagiarism-free and authentic assignments using the tips mentioned earlier.
