Many years ago it was really hard to define whether writing was mere plagiarism or a unique paper. Professors had to read and study a lot to be able to recognize a stolen work. Today the Internet offers many online programs. They help to reveal copy-pasted extracts and even structure or word combinations. Everything one needs is to upload a document and check it applying for the chosen program.
What Is Plagiarism and Why Is There so Much Mass Around It?
Students have to be aware of many research paper types. These are various essays, thesis papers, reports, reviews, etc. It takes so much time to learn all the peculiarities and recommendations concerning each of them that students often have no chance to investigate the topic properly. That is why they start to plagiarize academic writing.
The most common forms of plagiarism are: (Types of Plagiarism)
- Incorrect citation (students avoid in-text references and quotation marks)
- Copy-pasting (the famous combination Ctrl C + Ctrl V)
- Verbatim (introducing a source without any changes)
- Close paraphrasing (stealing a passage with changing of the word order, replacing some lexical units with their synonyms)
- Automatic plagiarism (usually occurs when researchers continue investigating the problem highlighted in their previous work but forget to mention it in the bibliography)
- Improper collaboration (investigating the topic with somebody but avoiding mentioning it in the source of ideas)
Plagiarism in college writing is establishing someone’s work as a personal unique paper. There are two types of stealing: deliberate and accidental. If an individual copy-pastes or provides poor word by word paraphrasing of someone’s work, the college will accuse him or her in intentional plagiarism. The second type occurs when a researcher forgets or does not know that it is necessary to mention the cited source in the bibliography.
5 Biggest Problems You Might Get Because of Plagiarism
Experts have identified 5 most common negative consequences which a dishonest learner might face.
- Fines – Regarding the copyright policy, students must pay fines in case they have copy-pasted somebody’s work. The sum varies depending on the amount of the stolen data and the author of the original resource.
- Expulsion from university – The committee can decide to expel a student because of repeated plagiarism. First, a person has to rewrite the paper but the mark is usually low even if everything is good. For the second attempt to cheat the dean has the right to dismiss a cheater.
- Tarnished reputation – Nobody will trust fraud. It often happens that one lie ruins a friendship. Friends become enemies because of repeated betrayal. The same one can say about people who plagiarize. Plagiarism can turn a reputable student into a mere cheater. Professors will find fault with every word and split hairs when checking each paper of such a student. Each new research will turn into a torture for this student.
- Career failure – This problem is connected with the previous one. Nobody would like to hire a person who is famous as a fraud. Such an individual is unreliable. Nobody will entrust some promising and profitable business or at least a task to him or her. It will be really hard to succeed. That is why it is so important to guard one’s reputation.
- Health complications – If the paper is banned, the committee will start an investigation and think of the most suitable punishment. Sometimes they let a student present new research. The deadline is usually shorter and the mark is certainly lower. Sometimes professors suggest taking an additional course which makes studies longer and more expensive. Both decisions (to say nothing about expulsion) make students feel nervous. Sleepless nights and constant worries lead to serious nervous disorders and diseases.
Best Ways to Omit Plagiarism
Sometimes it is not easy to create a unique paper. Information overloads the mind of researchers. Very often they stop differentiating between their own ideas and somebody’s sayings. What to do?
- Citing all the applied sources – The bibliography section must contain resources a student has cited in the paper. Even if one forgets to link the saying, professors will be more likely to consider it rather accidental than intentional due to the full bibliography list.
- Usage of quotation marks – These small but important indicators can rescue a person. One should just place them around each quoted phrase or even word.
- Studying such notions as paraphrasing, summarizing, and quotation – Paraphrasing means presenting somebody’s saying by substituting original words with their synonyms. Summarizing is a retelling of some idea. A quotation is just copying text without changes. First two means may create the impression of uniqueness unless tutors and instructors are aware of the source. Surely, it is not “Ctrl C – Ctrl V” but it is better to mention the source of the information in the “Literature” section.
- Investigate successful writings – Good examples show how to do everything correctly.
- Asking a professional to perform the homework – You can address a professional academic writing company which works 24/7 to help busy students with essay writing. Professionals provide 100% unique academic assignments. It is a perfect solution for those who lack time and has no opportunity to research.
Conclusion
Dealing with copyright policy means to consider each word and idea used in the research. If a person uses a number of articles, books, no-author materials, it’s better to add all of them in the list of applied literature. One can accidentally forget to indicate a quotation. Thoroughly organized bibliography will come to the rescue. The committee might evaluate the paper accordingly and not blame a person in plagiarism. The main thing is not to overload the text with citations.