All the students have to complete several assignments and academic projects during their college life. Students put immense effort to complete their tasks and then professors reject them ruthlessly. Why? Because most of the content they write is plagiarised.
Most of the students do not have proper knowledge of assignment writing. That is why they commit several mistakes and plagiarism is a part of it.
There can be several other reasons as well for deliberately or mistakenly writing plagiarised content.
- If the students do not have proper knowledge of assignment writing, they will write plagiarised content.
- If the students ignore the university guidelines, they may commit several mistakes.
- Students feel like ding it to make their research work easier.
- Students do not know what is considered plagiarism and what is not.
- Students seek assignment writing services and get amateur writers to complete their work.
It should be noted that plagiarism is a form of cheating and universities consider it as a major offense. Students should not use anyone’s content without giving them their due credits.
As a student, you should keep in mind that plagiarised content is caught very easily. Nowadays, universities have robust systems to find out plagiarized content.
Moreover, university professors are so experienced that they can easily find the plagiarized content.
So, while making an assignment, you should keep yourself away from plagiarism. Never ever submit plagiarized content and always do a thorough check.
If you are a college student and you also find it difficult to write assignments that are free from plagiarism, this article will help you. We have thoroughly discussed how students can avoid plagiarism in their assignments and academic projects.
When we write our coursework, a report, dissertation, a thesis, or any other assignment project, we use information from various sources from the internet. From articles, books and publications, to research papers, everything can be found on the internet. Moreover, our university libraries are a great source to gather all the information. When we use this information we must take into account plagiarism and all the elements that are related to it.
First of all, it is necessary to understand what plagiarism is.
What is plagiarism?
In a layman’s language, plagiarism refers to the presentation of someone else’s words or ideas as your own.
According to the University of Oxford
“Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition. Plagiarism may be intentional or reckless, or unintentional. Under the regulations for examinations, intentional or reckless plagiarism is a disciplinary offence.”
Dictionary.com defines plagiarism as
“An act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author’s work as one’s own, as by not crediting the original author.”
There are several types of plagiarism.
- Copy verbatim (sentences or paragraphs) without citing the author.
- Quote literally without indicating that it is a literal quote (no use of quotation marks or italics) even if the author is mentioned in the bibliography.
- Copy sentences or paragraphs from different authors or documents and combine them without citing the sources.
- Copy keeping the structure of a paragraph but changing some words to avoid detection.
- Paraphrasing without recognizing the source. Though paraphrasing can be correct if the source is recognized and cited, it can also be considered plagiarism.
- Copy work from other colleagues.
How do students commit this mistake?
- Literal copying of someone else’s work in an unauthorized manner.
- Indirectly copying someone else’s work, making changes and passing it off as their own original work, replacing the original author.
- Paraphrasing someone else’s work without giving them the due credit.
- Reproduce verbatim the words of another person without mentioning who they are.
- Copying documents from the internet without citing the author or the website is also considered plagiarism.
- Copying photographs or images from others without their permission or giving them due credits. This can also be considered plagiarism.
How to avoid plagiarism?
There are several methods with which you can avoid plagiarism. We will discuss them and also provide you with several tips that will make the assignment writing tasks easier and less challenging.
First of all, keep in mind that for different universities and colleges, plagiarism is different. However, all the methods and mistakes discussed should always be avoided as they are offensive and almost every university considers them as plagiarized content.
It is important to develop your own understanding of the subject and the topic. Thorough research plays an important role. You need to make your own unique arguments and not “copy and paste” someone else’s opinions. The major motive of universities and professors to assign academic tasks to college students is to analyze and improve their understanding of the subject.
If fragments or ideas from other works are used, they should always be placed in quotation marks, indicating the author and the source from which it was extracted.
Images should be used entirely, without any modification and citation of the source at the bottom of the image should also be added.
Remember that it is not necessary to cite the source of what is considered general knowledge.
Another way to avoid plagiarism is by paraphrasing. You can present thought or an idea based on what you read, but you have to contribute your own idea and not just change the order of the words.
Give yourself enough time
Whenever you start an academic project, it is necessary to give yourself enough time. The more time you have, the more you can utilize it in your research. The better your research, the better your assignment would be.
A lot of students make the significant mistake of starting late. They do not even begin their assignment writing a day before the deadline. When you rush, the chances are more that you miss things. When you have less time, you find shortcuts and easier methods to complete the tasks. You may also look for unfair means and end up copying someone else’s content.
All of these reasons make it so necessary to start academic projects before time. You will surely see so many benefits. You will be able to do better research. Other than that, you will be able to provide your assignments before the deadlines. If you manage your time properly, the work stress will be lesser.
If you find it difficult to manage time and complete your tasks on your own, it is better to find an assignment writing expert. Grow With Grades can be of great help to you. All the members at Grow With Grades are expert writers and they have been providing assignment help to students all across the world.
Proofreading
A lot of students think that writing is the only part when it comes to making college assignments. However, a lot of mistakes can be found during the proofreading part. You must focus on proofreading all your assignments. It can also help you find plagiarism. You may find several article rewriters on the internet. But you won’t get the right content. A thorough checking you do yourself is always a great method.
There are several ways you can effectively proofread your assignments and find several mistakes.
If possible, ask someone else to proofread your assignments. As the perspective of two people is different, you will surely be able to find several mistakes.
There are some more tips for proofreading mentioned below:
- Read your assignment several times
- Use some proofreading software
- Proofread backward
- Proofread for one type of error at a time
- Read aloud
- Proofread when you are most attentive
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is a great method to avoid plagiarism in your assignments. However, you should know the right way to do it. You must use paraphrasing very carefully.
You can pick up a whole paragraph and edit it according to your knowledge. But everyone has a different way of editing. The way you edit is what makes the difference. However, it is very important several times to give the due credit where required. Paraphrasing can only be beneficial if you change a sentence without losing its actual meaning. So, be very careful. Focus on the point that the content you write does not lose its essence and meaning.
Use plagiarism checker tools
One of the best ways to avoid plagiarism is to use online plagiarism checker tools. There are several websites and software available on the internet that can help you find plagiarism of your assignments, reports and other documents. It would be great if you use them. Though some are paid tools, you can easily find the free ones. And it is not like the free ones are useless. Some free software even works better than paid ones. Some even provide you with a complete plagiarism report.
Quotation marks do the magic
If you feel that the information written by someone is necessary for your assignment and it is important to be written, then you must use quotation marks. Give the due credits to the speaker or the author there and then.
A quote is not considered plagiarised content. However, you must also write all the sources in the bibliography as well. Just mentioning the author is not enough every time.
However, you should not reference or use quotation marks for:
- Titles of cited articles and books.
- Conventional designations (chronic low-back pain, cognitive impairment).
- Preferred bias-free language (persons with disabilities)
- Discipline-specific terms and phrases (sexual harassment, material culture, cognitive domain)
Citations are essential
No matter what kind of assignment you are working on, whether it is a dissertation or thesis, essay, research paper, or anything, it is necessary that you add a bibliography at the end. For those who do not know what a bibliography is, it is a list o all the sources from which the information is collected during the research process of the assignment.
According to plagiarism.org, a bibliography must include
- The name of the author
- The title of the work
- The names and the locations of the companies
- That published your copies of the sources
- The dates your copies were published
- The page numbers of your sources (if they are part of multi-source volumes)
Also, it is necessary to site all the online sources. So, whenever you start your research for any kind of assignment, make sure you bookmark all the websites that you use for information. This will surely make things easier for you once you complete your work.
Given the increase in academic plagiarism in recent years, universities have taken steps to solve it. Some of these measures consist of punishing the offending student by suspending them. Another measure that universities have taken is that they have included this issue in their code of ethics.
The ethical code of universities
The ethical code is a document that collects the principles and values of the university. Such documents deal with aspects such as integrity, honesty, equality, privacy or respect.
A lot of universities have discussed plagiarism in their ethical code. The universities hold complete right to take action on the students if they found them cheating in certain ways. And undoubtedly, plagiarism is considered cheating. In almost every university, it is a punishable offense.
