If you are a professional essay writer, then you need to be aware of plagiarism. Plagiarism is the act of stealing or using someone else’s work or idea and passing it off as your own. This is done on purpose or as an accident; sometimes, you can plagiarize your work!
As a professional essay writer, you should avoid plagiarizing your content; the following are tips to help you do so.
Why should a Professional Essay Writer avoid plagiarism?
As a professional essay writer, you are responsible for the essays of other people. If you plagiarize, then it will land them in hot water. This is because, at its core, plagiarism is stealing. You are stealing someone else’s work and passing it as your own.
Not only will the person you steal from won’t get their deserved recognition, but if you find out, then it will be a big knock on your reputation. There are different punishments for plagiarism. You may be suspended from school, lose position of power, or lose face; in some cases, it may even lead to prison time.
Paraphrase
One of the most common ways to avoid plagiarism is to paraphrase your text. This means you should read and fully understand the text from another source and then write it down in your own words. But remember, this is still someone else’s work, so even if you paraphrase, it can still be considered plagiarism. You can take a few other precautions to avoid this from happening.
When paraphrasing, the key is to change the words and sentence structure of the text without the text losing its meaning. Don’t just copy-paste and use a thesaurus to change a few words; change as many words as possible, and remember to cite the source.
Be a professional essay writer! Cite your sources!
I said earlier that you must cite your source to avoid plagiarism. But what does cite mean?
To cite a source means that if you are paraphrasing someone else’s work or eluding to it in any way, you should mention the source’s full name, date, and any other thing that might be necessary for your citation style.
There are different citation styles, the most common being APA, Chicago, or MLA. The main thing to remember when citing is to use the same style constantly throughout the essay.
Use quotation marks
Some people get confused about citations and using quotation marks. When using quotation marks, you can copy the text word for word from another’s work into your own. You just have to add quotation marks around it to identify that those words aren’t yours.
However, even when quoting, you must cite the source you have copied from. Also, you should not quote long pieces of text; they should be short phrases highlighting the importance of that study and how it connects to your essay.
Use a Range of Sources
Speaking of citing and quoting sources. Another thing you should do is to use multiple sources. This can be hard or soft copies like papers, articles, online sources, etc. Taking information from a myriad of resources not only increases your knowledge about the subject but also reduces the chances of plagiarism.
Remember to keep track of your sources and where you need to cite or add quotation marks.
Present Your Ideas
Another way of avoiding plagiarism is to forget about the resources and come up with your ideas. Try to look at the problem from a fresh perspective and see what nuances you can bring to the topics.
Remember that even if you are giving your idea but sampling slightly eluding to another’s work, then you need to cite them.
Use Plagiarism Checker
One of the ways to avoid plagiarism is to do what universities do to check for plagiarism. Do you think that university professors know all the papers, studies, and other works by heart? No, they don’t. They use a plagiarism checker software to check for plagiarism.
A plagiarism checker works by scanning the text of your document and then comparing it with all the available resources in its database. It then highlights the areas which can be considered as plagiarized.
You can use the plagiarism checker to your advantage. Before submitting, put your essay in it. It will give you areas where you missed citations, quotation marks or where you didn’t paraphrase well. You can then fix these problems and make your essay plagiarism-free.