Tips to Avoid Thesis Writing Plagiarism

With increasing frequency, both colleges and universities are making use of Web-based plagiarism checking services to scan papers for stolen material. And the consequences can be dire: at the end of this spectrum, a failing grade for the assignment; at the other end, dismissal from an academic program. If you are intentionally plagiarizing in your thesis paper, thesis, or dissertation, this should provide you pause. However, if you are not intentionally plagiarizing, there could still be reason for concern. Plagiarism checking applications catches an ever-growing amount of appropriated material--and at times the pupil has not even meant to do anything wrong! In what follows, I'd like to offer you some basic strategies for avoiding plagiarism of the accidental selection.

 

1. Simply put, plagiarism is using the words or thoughts of another person without giving credit to the person from whom they are borrowed. Right off the bat, this tells us something important: you can't only change a few words of a borrowed text (so that the passage is no more an immediate quotation) and believe that you're from danger. Unless the substance is"common knowledge," a citation is needed for any material you borrow--whether it's a direction quote, a paraphrase, or perhaps just an idea.

 

2. Know what your dissertation professor will look for. Before the coming of the computer, professors grabbed students who plagiarized; the Internet has only made it much simpler. What might give a clue to some professor that the material you have presented as your really came from somebody else?

 

Fluctuations in style

Vocabulary that is not common for you

Harsh relations between passages

Deviations at the point of view where the text is written

Contradictions in the notions or positions maintained at the paper

The failure of this paper to tackle the specific topic assigned (suggesting it may have been borrowed or bought )

The unavailability in your university/college library of these sources referenced in the paper

The usage of entirely Web-based sources

Recognizing the substance (Your professor is probably an expert in this subject, after all!)

By itself, nothing on this listing is a guarantee that material was plagiarized. On the other hand, the combination of many of those points will surely raise suspicions and will most likely cause your professor to dig deeper.

 

3. Know how anti-plagiarism programs work. In case a college, university professor or professor is using a Web-based anti-plagiarism service, it is a fantastic idea to be aware of what the program searches for. If you are blatantly plagiarizing, chances are that you won't outsmart these programs; if you're not intentionally plagiarizing, understanding the programs will help you to avoid plagiarizing inadvertently. Anti-plagiarism programs currently in use do a combination of the following:

 

Search the web for word sequences that may have been lifted. The easiest approach to become caught plagiarizing would be to take something from a source which can be found on the Internet. You will almost certainly get trapped, as even the simplest and cheapest apps do this much. Even if your source is no more available online, it might still be available to the anti-plagiarism search so long as it was on the internet at once.

Search databases of newspapers, theses, dissertations, articles, and novels, usually assessing your paper against millions of archived sources. This means that even print sources that have never been accessible online may turn up from the hunt.

Compare files. This allows professors and universities to submit many papers (even over a number of years) to compare them to get material that they share in common.

Make inner comparisons. The more complex applications use algorithms to analyze sentence structure and synonyms, letting them capture even paraphrased material which hasn't been copied exactly.

4. Don't cut-and-paste. By definition, if you're doing this, you're borrowing substance, and you are likely to leave clues (see tip #2, above). NOTE that this principle applies even to borrowing your personal material from newspapers you've written previously. If you ignore this principle, then make sure you mention the source of whatever you have borrowed.

5. Do not paraphrase without mentioning the source. Yes, it's plagiarism even if you change the words. If it's someone else's thought, then a citation is necessary. Always.

 

6. If you use someone else's words, always use quote marks (or block quote formatting). No exceptions. Period.

 

7. Each academic style sheet (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian), has its own conventions for citing resources. If you don't adhere to the proper conventions, you could accidentally wind up being accused of stealing the substance.

 

8. That is the one big gray area--what really is"common knowledge"? If there's the slightest doubt in your head, find the source and mention it. If you can not find the source, shed the material from your own paper.

 

9. Get your job edited. Whether you rely on a professional dissertation editing service, a professor, somebody from the school's writing center, or even a really smart friend, another pair of eyes can catch what you missed, saving you a significant hassle in the long run.

 

10. When in doubt, CITE!

 

Wishing you success in your own writing.