Chapter 1

Types of Plagiarism

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According to Psychological Record survey, 36% of undergraduates have admitted to plagiarize written material.

There are at least seven types of plagiarism:

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Chapter 2

Methods on How to Avoid Plagiarism

Plagiarism should be avoided by all the authors, including beginners, professional writers, students, etc. There are useful methods that will help you to avoid plagiarism and create original texts for your needs:

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    • Cite your sources to avoid plagiarism

    This will help you cite all the sources you have used in your paper and avoid plagiarism. You can use MLA, APA, or Chicago style citations depending on your teacher's demands. Make sure you follow all the guidelines of the chosen style.

  • • Use a plagiarism checker to avoid plagiarism

    You can find many online plagiarism checkers (free and paid) that will help you to find potential plagiarism. Thanks to checkers, you will be able to see plagiarized sentences and phrases. You should look at how much plagiarism the checker can find, and how much it costs to check the paper.

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  • • Paraphrase or quote to avoid plagiarism

    When you have checked the written text and found out its not 100% original, it's possible to paraphrase phrases taken from other authors or quote them to avoid plagiarism.

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    When you read an idea in another source, write it down by other words into your work to avoid plagiarism. Remember it is acceptable to paraphrase another author only if you cite the source properly.

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    When you want to put someone's idea into your writing, feel free to include a direct quotation following the main rules. Direct quotes help the author to provide evidence and support the information.

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    Paraphrasing VS quoting

    Depending on the paper you are writing, you can quote or paraphrase. For example, in a literary analysis paper or research paper, it's better to make quotes. And it's better to paraphrase when you can represent the idea in fewer words compared to the source, without using the specific language of the author.


Frequently asked questions about avoiding plagiarism

Plagiarism means stealing or theft but the concept doesn't exist legally. Both civil and criminal statutes do not mention the plagiarism. We should notice that copyright infringement and plagiarism are two different things.

Both these terms may look similar but when it comes to the law, the important aspect is the material copyright protection. It's understandable when someone uses the written text protected by copyright, the law defines it as a copyright infringement. Plagiarism is a moral offense that means stealing someone's ideas that were written even without copyright protection.

Plagiarism is an indicator of academic laziness and no respect for other authors, that's why colleges and schools use penalties. For students, it's better to avoid plagiarism because it leads to serious consequences like failing the course, suspension from the college, and copyright infringement. Some students can be expelled, and this can ruin their future potential career.
No, because this is self-plagiarism. The writer cannot use someone else's words in their papers, including their own words written in other articles and publications. When you use phrases and sentences from previously written documents, they must be cited properly.

"Common knowledge" is well-known ideas or phrases that shouldn't be cited. For example:

  • Donald Trump is the president of the USA.
  • Water boils at 212०F.

You don't have to cite these phrases when using them in your writing because this is well-known information for everyone. By the way, if you include idioms into your text, there are no needs to cite them too.