Writing a
dissertation with hundreds of pages of information can face several issues. One
of the critical issues is the possibility of committing plagiarism while
writing your research documents. It is not the case that plagiarism only
happens intentionally. It may also occur accidentally. However, every academic
institution takes plagiarism very seriously and conducts thorough checks to
detect it in your research papers. If they find any kind of plagiarism, then it
can be highly troublesome for any student and his/her career. It is a crime to
steal information from an original author and add it to your dissertation
without giving proper credit to them.
Whether you are
inducing plagiarism intentionally or unintentionally, it has to be stopped and
removed from all your documents. Here are some ways you can avoid the trouble
arising out of plagiarism.
Understand plagiarism
The foremost
step to control plagiarism is to know it in a proper manner. Plagiarism is the
unauthorized use of another individual’s ideas and words where that individual
is not even credited for borrowing his/her work. Simply paraphrasing the
original words will not keep you out of trouble. It is critical to give credit
to the author for any work that is quoted directly or paraphrased. Even if your
writing is inspired by those ideas, you should give credit to the original
writer.
Know how you may be caught
However hard you
try, you cannot escape the plagiarism checks conducted by your professors. Most
of the academic institutions make use of strong plagiarism checking tools that
are available online. Technology has made it much simpler to find out the
percentage of plagiarism and copied content within a document. Using plagiarism
detection tools, your professors can easily find style fluctuations, as well as
viewpoint deviations. They can also find any striking connection between paragraphs,
theory contradictions, unusual text in a given topic, and atypical vocabulary.
If a combination of some of these factors is reflected in your paper, then your
work can be further scrutinized deeply.
Know the functioning of anti-plagiarism services
To avoid
unintentional plagiarism, you can gain knowledge of the way anti-plagiarism
programs work. You may perform some dummy checks and see the kinds of word
strings that are picked up by these programs. If your copied content is
available anywhere on the Internet, then there is no escape for you. Even a
simple program has the ability to detect it. Additionally, you should check
cached sources and dissertation databases. A program also compares your project
with unlimited archived academic sources. Although information from these
sources may not be available online, it can easily be detected by an
anti-plagiarism program. Such a program can also go to the extent of examining
your used vocabulary and sentences structures. Thus, it is helpful to avoid paraphrasing
anything.
Avoid copy-paste work
While you should
avoid paraphrasing, it is also critical not to get involved in any copy-paste
job. This will leave the marks of plagiarism in a direct way. Therefore, always
make sure to cite the original source if you are making a quote. The same rule
should be followed when you paraphrase any information that is an idea of
someone else.
Make proper citations
It is also
highly important to follow the institutionally recommended academic style for
citation of sources. For example, use the APA, Chicago or MLA style if you have
specifically been asked to do so. Learn the academic style you need to follow
for referencing purposes and know its conventions. Use these conventions while
citing your sources. Else, you might commit plagiarism significantly.
Treat doubtful cases properly
Whenever you
have any doubt, it is better to cite the source of knowledge. However, there is
a gray area that is termed as common knowledge. If you are doubtful about
common knowledge, then always make a citation. In case you are unable to find a
source, then it is better to stay away from using that idea altogether.
Use quotation marks
There is no
avoidance of this rule if you want to create an original work. Always insert
your quoted text inside quotation marks.
Get your dissertation edited
If you still have
doubts regarding plagiarism, then it is your own interest to go for a
professional review of your dissertation before submission. A professional
editor can find all types of plagiarism errors and correct them as required.
