Academic plagiarism is a serious concern for every student. According to Oxford Dictionary, it means taking someone’s ideas and findings and presenting them as your own. Plagiarism takes many forms, and in many cases, students are not even aware that they’ve plagiarized someone’s work.
But no matter if you plagiarize intentionally or not, the consequences might be rather unpleasant. You may end up getting a failing grade for the assignment, fail the entire course or even get expelled from college. In today’s article, we will provide you with guidance to help you ensure that an essay you submit is original.
Of course, the most reliable way to submit a unique essay is to turn to an experienced tutor. For example, you can hire a custom college essay writing service and buy a 100% original essay from the Shinyessays.com website. Since an academic writer creates the paper for you from scratch, you can rest assured that it’s unique and not copied from anywhere. Moreover, you’ll receive a free plagiarism report proving that your essay is original and each source is cited properly.
How can you be sure that your essay is original?
Once you submit an essay to your college or university, it has to pass the plagiarism check. Your instructor uses the software that finds similarities with other works. To remain confident that you’ve submitted a unique paper and won’t have problems with it, take the following steps.
Carefully cite each source you’ve used
Most issues of plagiarism occur because students incorrectly quote the sources they’ve used. If you use a sentence from the textbook without mentioning the author, it counts as plagiarism. So, rule number one: always quote when copying text word for word, and indicate the source. Rule number two: when you take the idea from the source and rewrite it in your own words, you have to mention the author as well.
Paraphrasing doesn’t mean changing a word or two in a sentence, but rather introducing the same idea in completely different words. And rule number three is: make sure each source is cited correctly in APA, MLA, or Chicago style. In this case, using someone’s ideas will never be taken as plagiarism.
Avoid relying too much on others’ work
Now that you know how to cite sources correctly, you are very likely to avoid plagiarism. But there’s another problem. A research paper or essay should present your original thoughts, arguments and findings. If you cite other researchers too often, quote large chunks of text or add little thoughts of your own, it increases the chance that plagiarism will be found.
Your goal is to analyze the work of others and come up with your conclusions, not just to cite what other researchers had to say. The more original text you add, the less chance of being caught on plagiarism and the higher grade you will get at the end.
Strengthen your academic writing skills
This point is closely connected with the previous ones. If you develop strong academic writing skills, you won’t need to feel anxious about plagiarism and other issues as you’ll know how to avoid them. Effective academic writing includes using proper language, paper structure, citation, formatting, and many more.
You might want to take an academic writing class in your college or turn to a private tutor so that they could counsel you in academic writing. Or, if you feel completely lost with an essay and the deadline is tomorrow, you can turn to an academic writing service and get help from a custom essay writer.
Use the plagiarism checking software
Even if you are confident that you’ve cited everything, it will do you any harm to double-check the paper using an online plagiarism checker. The most popular online tools are Unicheck.com, ScholarPlagiarism.com, and Bibme.org. These are aimed particularly at checking academic papers and detecting academic plagiarism.
By checking your piece before submission, you’ll have a chance to correct the occasional plagiarism and avoid any issues in college. If you want an in-depth premium check as the paper is very important, you can turn to an essay writing company since they use advanced premium software.
Whenever in doubt, ask for advice
Academic writing has many subtleties that might be difficult to keep in mind. If you have any questions about plagiarism, proper citation, referencing or other paper writing issues, remember that it’s perfectly okay to ask for help. This is especially true for overseas students who might not only feel confused by academic writing rules but struggle with proper English writing as well.
You can find an academic counselor in your college, ask a friend for help or consult a professional essay writer. The third option is most effective as you’ll work one on one with an experienced tutor who can prepare a paper for you or improve your current piece and check it for plagiarism so that your academic honesty is not compromised.