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Plagiarism and Ways to avoid it

Plagiarizing refers to the act of stealing another person’s words and failing to give credit to the source. Plagiarism is not acceptable. It can result in serious problems when receiving grades in a particular class. When a student is found to have plagiarized, they can receive an “F” in a particular assessment. A good number of students fail to understand what plagiarism means. Being able to detect plagiarism enhances a student’s ability to perform consistently and correctly.

Plagiarism is a common activity. According to UNC “How” it may occur without the knowledge of the other party, or intentionally when one wants to deceive the other by giving them a false impression. For such acts to be punished, plagiarism must be deliberate. Plagiarizing is done either by copying or using another person’s work without acknowledging them as the original author of said work. UNC “How” also states that “Failing to give proper credit to another’s ideas has the same consequences as if someone intentionally stole another’s work”. Thus every student needs to fully understand and recognize plagiarism.

College professors tend to be very strict when giving assignments such as essay writing since they are aware of how easy it is for students to attempt to plagiarize. Hence, they tend to create many rules to prevent students from stealing another individual’s work without properly citing the source. Young students tend to be more vulnerable to plagiarism compared to older students because of the need for speed and the ease of doing so. One can easily determine Common knowledge by asking yourself “Did I know this information before?” And “Did this information come from my own mind?” (Writing Center 2 Para 5)

According to UNC, paraphrasing can also be termed plagiarism if “Paraphrasing does NOT mean changing a word or two in someone else’s sentence, changing the sentence structure while maintaining the original words, or changing a few words to synonyms.”

I can easily avoid plagiarism by noting down the sources used and effectively citing them. I can also avoid plagiarism by making sure that my papers are original. It is also important to use quotations properly. Using the correct citation format helps in avoiding plagiarism as well since it provides the correct information about the source used. I will make sure that I give credit to my sources whenever necessary, and provide proper citations.

Works cited

Price, Jodi. “Plagiarism Explained.” Navarro College, Jan. 2019,

https://navarrocollege.instructure.com. Accessed 10 April 2021.

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “Why We Cite.” 09 April 2018.

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “How We Cite.” 09 April 2018.

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/