Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of words and ideas without properly acknowledging the source. With the proliferation of information in the world wide web, plagiarism has become one of the major problems publishers, writers and even ordinary bloggers meet daily. Due to the lack of knowledge on citation, most people commit this grave act without them realizing it. Here are some useful tips to avoid unintentionally plagiarizing some body’s work.

Before going into several techniques on citation, it’s important to explain the difference between plagiarism and misuse of sources. Plagiarism happens when you don’t acknowledge the source while misuse of sources happens when you don’t properly cite your source. Misuse of sources is the failure to follow correct citation formats. Most students fall victim to this as different citation techniques follow different formats.

Use of Quotation Marks

Use quotation marks when you want to copy another person’s ideas without having to change it’s structures. Don’t forget to include your source’s information before or after the direct quotations.

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

When you like to use another person’s ideas, avoid plagiarism by forming those ideas into your own words. You still need to indicated the source, but there’s no need for you to put the idea/s in quotation marks. Now, changing a few words within a sentence does not count as paraphrasing. Here are some factors you need to consider to paraphrase correctly.

• Changing a few words in a sentence is still plagiarism.
• Citing the source of information is important. When you copy a certain part that you didn’t change, place it in quotation marks and enclose the author’s name and page number if applicable in parentheses.
• Use your own words when explaining the main idea of the source.
• When finalizing your work, check the original content and see if you’ve got all the details right. Sometimes, when paraphrasing, writers unintentionally change the idea of the original source. Keep in mind that a change in sentence structure and choice of words may give the idea a meaning different from the one conveyed originally.
• Check for similarities on sentence structure. This may also be considered as plagiarism.

Parenthetical Citations

These are information written within the paragraph about your source. When making parenthetical citations, make sure that you cite as many times as the source is used in your work. Also, your in-text citations should appear in your bibliography or references.

Notes

Footnotes and endnotes make your paragraphs free from numerous parenthetical citations. These are lists placed after a page or after an entire part of your work.

Bibliography or Reference Page

This is a page in your work where all the information about your sources are written. Your sources should be listed in alphabetical order. The name of this page will depend on the citation style that you’d like to use. The APA style refers to this page is References, MLA call is as Works Cited and Chicago style uses Bibliography as it’s header.

Citation Styles

The use of different citation techniques are commonly seen on published works and researches, however, you can also use these methods when making web content articles.

Modern Language Association (MLA)

Here are the general formats under the MLA style.

• Book Sources

First Author’s last name, [space] First name/s [space] Middle initial [period] [space], and Second Author’s First name [space] Middle initial [period] [space] Last name [period][space] Book title [period] [space]Place of publication: [space] Publisher, [space] Date of publication[period]

• Online Sources

Same Author Name format. “Title: [space] subtitle of web page if any[period]“[space] Title: Subtitle or page section [period][space] publishing agency if any [period] [space] Date of publication or last updated [period] [space] Day month year of access <URL>

• Use the word “and” for 2 authors. When citing 3 or more authors, you can just indicate the first author [comma] and the word et al[period]

American Psychological Association (APA)

Here are the general formats under the APA style.

• Book Sources:

First Author’s Last name, Initial of First name [period][comma][space] & Second Author’s Last name, Initial of First name[space] (year of publication)[period][space]book title[period][space]Place of publication: [space] Publisher[period]

• Online Sources:

Author[period][space] (year of publication)[period] Webpage title:[space]Subtitle if any,[space] retrieved month day,year,[space] from URL

Chicago/ Turabian

Here are the general format for Chicago style.

• Book Sources:

First Author’s last name,[space] First name [space] and second author’s last name, [space] first name [period]Book Title[period][space] Place of publication: [space] Publisher, year of publication[period]

• Online Sources:

First Author’s last name,[space] First name[period]“Title[period]“Series[period]Publisher, [space] year of publication

Determining the Need for Citations

Information from another source, like publications, experiments, studies, researches, and interviews should be documented in your work. There’s no need for you to cite references if you’re writing about your personal views, observations and experiences. Common knowledge are also not cited. These are generally accepted facts that don’t need in-depth studies to be proven true. Folklore, myths and legends do not need documentation as searching for the root source would give you numerous (if none) results.

Plagiarism can be avoided by being responsible researchers and writers. Acknowledging the source correctly is very important not only in scholarly writing but in every article you write.