4 Ways You Can Avoid Plagiarism in Essays and Assignments

by Andy Alvin Digital Marketing Strategist

Intended or unintended, plagiarism is an offence that comes with a heavy price. Plagiarism can lead to rustication from college, legal and monetary repercussions. Getting caught for stealing information can also damage your academic reputation, and the effects can linger even in your professional life. You certainly would not want that.

When the topics are similar, and all of you are using the internet to research for your essays and assignments, ideas are bound to clash. Moreover, the information used might be similar, too. In that case, how do you avoid plagiarism and how to keep Grammar check? Here is what you can do.

4 Ways You Can Avoid Plagiarism in Essays

1. Keep track of your sources

Most often, students forget to cite sources, and even this unintentional plagiarism usually costs them dearly. When you start researching the topic, take notes to record the source from where you have collected data.

Note down the name of the books and journal articles along with the publication date, volume, version, etc. In the case of online data, use the URLs of the websites and videos. Finally, organise the sources and compile them into a list of citations.

2. Quote and paraphrase

We get inspired by other's work all the time. Now, if you want to share the idea of an author, you can use it within quotes and give him/her due recognition in your essay. If you use data from a book, you can paraphrase the original text to avoid the plagues of plagiarism.

When quoting, remember to use the exact words in verbatim. And when paraphrasing, make sure that the text you write isn’t too similar to the original version to avoid plagiarism.

3. Cite the original source

Even when you paraphrase or quote a text, you need to include a footnote or an in-text citation to acknowledge the original author. By no means should the used text give the idea that you have written it. When providing an in-text citation, make sure that each mention can be traced back in full in the complete reference list or bibliography of the paper.

This way, the readers will know where the information came from and will be able to locate the source to be sure. Now, there are different styles of citing and referencing. So, check with your professor to ensure you use the correct format.

4. Use a plagiarism checker

Most universities use advanced plagiarism checking tools like Turnitin to detect portions of pirated text in essays and assignments. You can do the same and submit a report as evidence, too. You can use Turnitin, Grammarly or CopyScape to scan your document.

The tool will compare your writing with a vast database and let you detect parts that you have not cited or quoted. It will also highlight the segments that are similar to other texts, and you can change or eliminate these portions accordingly. Just make sure that you use an advanced tool build using efficient algorithms for the perfect results.

Plagiarism can take affect your academic performance, and you may end up losing a year. But don’t let that bother you anymore. Implement the steps mentioned above and submit an authentic paper to bag the best grades.