Plagiarism on Custom Academic Essays and Papers

Plagiarism is defined as the use of other people’s words and ideas without acknowledging the source of the information. Students need to understand when and where to give credit when using sources and the phrases and terms used when referring to plagiarism. To learn how to absolutely avoid plagiarism, read on.

To prevent plagiarism, a student should give credit when he or she uses any of the following:

• Any piece of information that is not considered a common knowledge like statistics, diagrams and graphs.

• Other people’s theories, ideas or opinions.

• Quoting other person’s written or spoken words.

• A paraphrase of the written or spoken words of another person.

How to avoid plagiarism

• Place every word that comes directly from the text in a quotation form 

• Paraphrase the text; this involves writing the text in your own words and not just replacing or re-arranging words. 

• Confirm the paraphrased text against the original one to make sure that u have not repeated the original words or phrases while ensuring the paraphrasing does not distort the intended meaning. 

Phrases and Terms to be known on Plagiarism 

Common knowledge: This involves facts that are known to many people and are found in numerous places for example Bill Clinton was elected the president of the USA in 1992. This is a known fact and needs no documenting. Facts that are not known to many people should be cited.

Quotation: When you directly quote another person’s words or ideas from the text, place the quotation marks and document the source according to the style of documentation.

Paraphrase: This involves the use of another person’s ideas but in your own words. This is the requisite skill that is needed when incorporating a source into your writing. Despite using your words in paraphrased form, the source of the information must be acknowledged.