How to avoid plagiarism
What strategies do you adopt to maintain content originality?
1. Understand the context
- Do not copy–paste the text from the reference paper. Instead, put the idea in your own words.
- Understand the idea(s) of the reference source well in order to paraphrase correctly.
- Examples on good paraphrasing can be found here (https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase.html)
2. Quote
Use quotes to indicate that the text has been taken from another paper. The quotes should be exactly the way they appear in the paper you take them from.
3. Identify what does and does not need to be cited
- Any words or ideas that are not your own but taken from another paper need to be cited
- Cite Your Own Material—if you are using content from your previous paper, you must cite yourself. Using material you have published before without citation is called self-plagiarism.
- The scientific evidence you gathered after performing your tests should not be cited.
- Facts or common knowledge need not be cited. If unsure, include a reference.
4. Manage your citations
- Maintain records of the sources you refer to. Use citation software like EndNote or Reference Manager to manage the citations used for the paper
- Use multiple references for the background information/literature survey. For example, rather than referencing a review, the individual papers should be referred to and cited.
5. Use plagiarism Detecting tools
You can use Turnitin software to see how much of your paper is plagiarized
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