What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism happens when you present someone else’s work as your own without giving authority to the original creator. It is also known as intellectual theft, which can be intentional and accidental.

When the person “steals” the work of another, passing all the credit to himself, without citing where he got the data, it is called Plagiarism.

People think of copying and taking another’s work as something that is not huge. Still, in reality, it is a punishable violation.

How to avoid Plagiarism?

To avoid it, we must research, read and understand the topic we are working on. We must not allow ourselves to take the work and merits of others without citing them. So, whenever we take a phrase to prove, we quote our work, put quotation marks, or link to it.

4 ways to avoid Plagiarism in your writing

It’s important to keep originality in your work. Still, you can also find yourself stuck on a topic you’ve never heard about before. In such cases, you can’t help but start researching other people in the field. 

You might dive deeper and read case studies, analyses, and books by respected authors for the particular topic you’re assigned to write about. Doing this can lead to a ‘trap’ – you might plagiarise their idea, with or without your knowledge. Don’t panic! It’s easily fixable.

1. Cite your source – When we cite material, we must mention all the details necessary to acknowledge the original source.
2. Include quotations – when including quotation marks, we must put the text in quotes, mention the author, and include some text after the reference.
3. Present your idea – when we want to present our ideas, we must be clear about the purpose, find convincing points, set the introduction, and present with confidence.
4. Use a plagiarism checker – A plagiarism checker can identify all the problems your document might have in this section. Finding a good one is a must in this case if you want to have great results.

Following these steps is an excellent way to start, and we can better write an article worthy of publishing.

To show our ideas by being inspired somewhere is not plagiarism. It is always good to research, look and create ideas for the work we are going to do.

Plagiarism concept and types

As we said above, it is a punishable act for which there are still many people who are not informed enough about the consequences.

When we have an assignment, we should research and search for it, trying to express it in our own words in our work. We should focus on originality in our work, and plagiarising violates our right to move to the next steps.

The most common types of Plagiarism are:

• Direct Plagiarism
• Self Plagiarism
• Mosaic Plagiarism
• Accidental Plagiarism
• Translated Plagiarism

Direct Plagiarism – is the word-for-word transcription of a section of someone else’s work without attribution and quotation marks. In this instance, the writer takes most of their draft almost word-for-word from another source.

Self Plagiarism – Occurs when you ‘reuse’ work that you’ve already published, such as past articles or books. It is yours, but you must cite it properly to avoid plagiarizing ‘someone’.

Mosaic Plagiarism – is when one takes text from two or three different sources and mixes them, but the structure and idea remain the same.

Accidental Plagiarism – means when you fail to give credit to the person or source from where you got the material. Even though this is probably not done on purpose on your part, you are still plagiarizing .

Although it is unintentional, the consequences are the same as other types of Plagiarism:

• The college/school or work can expell you
• It can result in a fine
• You can tarnish your reputation

 

Accidental Plagiarism is caused by not knowing that even for the shortest phrases, there must be a citation. 

• Use quotation marks
• When you take notes, indicate clearly in quotation marks.
• If the facts you mention are known, still use the quotation.
• Give credit/citation in the text or parentheses; cite at the end of the article.

 

Translated Plagiarism – this phenomenon occurs when one translates a document and presents it as its own. This can be hard to be detected from tools as the formation of the translated words, technically, appear for the first time that way. Crossplag is the only tackles this problem and detects translated plagiarism, according to European Network for Academic Integrity.

Mosaic plagiarism vs Paraphrasing

Mosaic Plagiarism is when someone borrows the work of more than two sources and uses similar words. Still, the structure and idea remain the same.

Paraphrasing plagiarism is when you change some original words, change their place or try to give a different meaning.

The difference is that paraphrasing involves using someone’s idea but changing the word formation. At the same time, Mosaic takes content from more than two sources and fuses them.

The consequences

Plagiarism in college may result in your suspension or expulsion from that college or university. 

If you have committed plagiarism by any chance, the institution you’re studying or working on will take measure. It can go from grading your paper 0 to complete expelling from the institution. 

The consequences vary from reputation damage, legal and monetary repercussion.

Your student reputation can be gone in a second if you’re caught plagiarising. As most colleges and universities have very strict rules as to avoid such things, the consequences are seriously. Most students are expelled immediately and graded 0.

Also, your professional reputation can go down the drain if you’re caught plagiarising. Not only will you be either fired or asked to step down from a high position, you will also find it hard to find another job. Your name will be ruined and so will a promising career.

The legal and monetary repercussion are also something to take into account. Some plagiarism cases may also lead to jail time, if the monetary gain from it was big enough. That’s why if you’re a daily writer you must be extra careful as one mistake can lead to having legal repercussion. There are also cases where the plagiarised person may sue for monetary compensation for the work that was stolen, and the sum is never a small one.

Causes of Plagiarism

The reasons why a person commits Plagiarism are very different.

Some people are unaware of the consequences or don’t take the effects seriously and decide to do it anyway without thinking long or being well informed about the consequences.

Some of the most common reasons that one plagiarizes are

• Fear – the fear of failing, of getting a low grade which could cost you your job.
• Apathy – The lack of motivation to complete a task by leaving it at the last minute or not taking the assigned work seriously. Students who lack the imagination and thoughts to create their work end up plagiarizing and neglect to cite sources and connect links.
• Lack of Citation Skills – Some students take phrases from external sources, but when they cannot mention the source directly and thus plagiarize.

Conclusion

Plagiarism is considered an ethically wrong thing to do. To avoid it, you must cite sources, include quotation marks, and always use a plagiarism detector before submission.

The best way to prevent it is to be familiar with it. Know the ins and outs of it and understand what it means to plagiarise, and you will know how to avoid it. 

As far as it goes, it is a punishable offense, and the penalties for it can go up to the extent of your expulsion.

The consequences are severe; among them, we can mention 5 of them. 

• Destroyed Student Reputation
• Destroyed Professional Reputation
• Destroyed Academic Reputation
• Legal Repercussions
• Monetary Repercussions

 

The points mentioned above taught us what we face if we commit Plagiarism. Let’s know how to abide by the rules and work independently.

To avoid Plagiarism, we should always check our work before submitting it through detectors. We need to acquire self-writing skills through research, to be clear about what we speak and write.

We need to be clear about what we are talking about and if we have to document it, let’s do it through quotes and citations.