How to Prevent Yourself from Plagiarizing Essay

Total Length: 958 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 2

Page 1 of 3

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is not just the act of copying someone else’s words and passing them off as your own. It is also the act of taking someone else’s ideas and taking claim or credit for them. Plagiarism can take various forms, in other words—and the best policy to adopt when doing academic research and writing is to always give credit where credit is due. There is never an advantage to gain from trying to steal someone else’s work—but there is everything to lose. On the other hand, properly citing sources and giving a reference anytime words or ideas are taken from a source is just good, academic practice and there’s no shame in citing other authors. So long as you contribute something new to the topic, citing other authors is actually looked highly upon: it shows you’ve taken the time to get to know what others have said on the topic.

When it comes to recognizing plagiarism, one must be on guard: ideas matter—not just words. Rephrasing words or phrases so that they look original or at least different from the source from which they were taken does not mean that one is free from plagiarism. For example, in the example given, the student plagiarizes the source material even though words are rephrased. Rephrasing the words is like putting a little window dressing on a product that you have stolen from a competitor—it’s still the same product, you’ve just dressed it up a little.

Stuck Writing Your "How to Prevent Yourself from Plagiarizing" Essay?

To recognize plagiarism, therefore, one has to pay attention to the ideas behind the content as well as to the actual words used in the content. As Walden (2018) points out, if the concept is not unique, then one has to credit the source from which it is derived—otherwise it is plagiarism.

Of course, that doesn’t mean plagiarism is always intentional. A student might think he is being fair by paraphrasing a source—but really this is plagiarism too if the content produced matches too closely the same ideas and content as the original. A similar problem occurs when a student cites too infrequently, which is the case in the example. The student cites at the end, but the ideas contained in the whole of the paragraph closely resemble the original, so more than one citation is needed.

I believe the student unintentionally plagiarized the original source, since he included a citation at the end to at least give some credit and did attempt to paraphrase the source material. But two sentences that stand out are the third sentence and the last, both of which contain phrases and ideas that bear a striking resemblance to the original material—and while there is a citation at the end, the only word placed in quotes is….....

Show More ⇣


     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


Resources

Hays, T., & Minichiello, V. (2005). The meaning of music in the lives of older people: A qualitative study. Psychology of Music, 33(4), 437-451.

Walden. (2018). Academic integrity: Plagiarism. Retrieved from https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/studentaffairs/academicintegrity/plagiarism

sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"How To Prevent Yourself From Plagiarizing" (2018, June 30) Retrieved March 29, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/how-to-prevent-yourself-from-plagiarizing-essay

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"How To Prevent Yourself From Plagiarizing" 30 June 2018. Web.29 March. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/how-to-prevent-yourself-from-plagiarizing-essay>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"How To Prevent Yourself From Plagiarizing", 30 June 2018, Accessed.29 March. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/how-to-prevent-yourself-from-plagiarizing-essay