Writing Lessons & Advice: Essay Help- Avoiding Plagiarism
Where gathering research is one-half the battle in essay prep, properly using the research in an essay is the other half. Research done right and well gives reputable depth to your claims, but credit must be given where credit is due when incorporating it in an essay. It’s a matter of academic honesty and formality. Not doing so leads to significant consequences.
Presenting work or ideas from another source as your own without proper consent or acknowledgement is plagiarism. Why it happens can sometimes be attributed to stress. Writing a research-based essay in itself can be stressful; the process can be tedious, the project overwhelming for a less-experienced writer, on top of concerns over good grades or deadlines. Other instances can be attributed to irresponsible reasons, like poor time management, laziness, carelessness, or ignorance.
These are only reasons behind it and not excuses though. Any case of significant plagiarism is considered cheating and may even carry legal consequences, like fines or jail time.
In short, because appropriate time and effort were not given to the essay, anything from the assignment grade to future prospects can be negatively impacted depending on the weight of the offense.
Plagiarism occurs either deliberately or unintentionally in a few different ways:
Direct plagiarism is like uncredited copying and pasting. It’s a word-for-word transcription of another’s work without attribution and quotation marks.
Self-plagiarism happens by submitting previous work for a current assignment without permission.
Mosaic plagiarism is like patchwork or mash-ups; either phrases from another source are borrowed without using quotation marks or the writer incorporates synonyms into the author’s language but maintains a majority of the original sentence structure and meaning
Accidental plagiarism tends to be punctuation or content errors, like neglecting to cite sources, misquoting a source, or unintentional paraphrasing without attribution.
To mitigate the presence of plagiarism in your essay-writing, take some time to implement these tips and tricks in your process.
Use direct quotations- this is the safest way to add research to an essay.
Prepare an original work for the assignment- starting from scratch is another safe route through the essay-writing process. Reusing old work may be a rare option, but it’s one that may need to be done with care. What sufficed for one grade, class, or project may not fully meet the criteria of another.
Incorporate citation tags if you can- this gives direct credit to the appropriate writer. These kinds of tags are phrases like according to (source)… or (source) says, “some relevant fact”…
Put citations fully in your own words- don’t mix-and-match between your writing and someone else’s. Either completely paraphrase a segment you use or treat it like a direct quote.
Keep track of sources you consult in your research- this is what a note-card or note-taking step in essay-writing is for. It’s a separate exercise to curate your potential quotes. (More about note-taking in this lesson!)
Proofread with a citation checker before submitting a final draft- Be sure to revise noted errors to an acceptable level.
Consult your style guide for additional details- the essay style you need to follow may have specific ways to format your citations and references.
If you’ve experienced much trial-and-error in food prep, you may have learned that significant diversions from a recipe can result in the final product being not right. In the same way, plagiarism is one result of careless writing hacks and oversights. When corners aren’t cut, essay-writing yields better results; you gain experience, knowledge, and even pride in your own work.
Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of how and why to avoid plagiarism in your essay writing!
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