Introduction
According to Fayetteville State University, plagiarism entails presentation of thoughts, words, or research of another person work as one’s work. This is considered to be a serious academic offense (Fayetteville State University 3). This essay evaluates the different ways through which students can use to avoid plagiarism. Some of the concepts considered include use of quotation marks, paraphrasing, citing the source of information and effective time management.
How students can avoid plagiarism
Paraphrasing is defined as using another person’s ideas when composing an essay or other academic materials such as reports. Despite using your own words, the source of information should always be given credit (Hendrickson 32)
To avoid plagiarism, students should learn how to paraphrase. This is achieved by using one’s own words to restate the author’s ideas and concepts. In the process of paraphrasing, care should be taken to ensure that the meaning is retained.
When paraphrasing, one should avoid making minor changes such as the use of synonyms such as “less” for “fewer” and reversing the order of a sentence. To avoid plagiarism when paraphrasing, the student should understand the material and keep it away when composing the essay. The materials should be used when verifying whether the facts have been well understood.
Appropriate use of quotation marks should be ensured when using the exact words of the authors. Words which are not a part of the author’s work and are to be included in the essay should be put in square brackets. If some words are omitted in the process of writing the quotations, dotted lines should be used to signify the omission. For example, “………..” At the end of the quotation, credit to the source should be given either in the form of in-text citation or in a footnote.
Citation is another way through which students can avoid plagiarism. Citation involves giving credit to the source of all the ideas used in writing the essay. A citation can be done in various forms, which include footnotes, endnotes, and in-text citation. Footnotes are mostly used in longer papers.
Use of footnotes involves the inclusion of superscripts within the body of the paper denoting acknowledgment of the respective author. This is followed by a corresponding entry of the source at the bottom of the page. About in-text citation, the surname of the author and the specific page number from where the idea was obtained are illustrated (Crews & VanSant 407).
In addition to the above methods, effective time management can also enable students to avoid plagiarism. Students should ensure that they manage their time well. This will enable them to have ample time to do research and complete their work on time. Time mismanagement is one of the main reasons why many students plagiarize either knowingly and unknowingly. This arises from the fact that they have a lot of work to complete within a short duration. As a result, they do not have time to compose their ideas.
Conclusion
Plagiarism is a criminal offense in academic work. Therefore, it is should be completely avoided. Some of the ways through which this can be attained include acknowledging the source of information. Alternatively, appropriate use of direct quotes where exact words of the author have been used should be considered.
About paraphrasing, the writer should ensure that he or she maintains the original meaning. Also, to quotation marks, all the sources should be well cited. Effective time management can also enable students to avoid plagiarism by having ample time to research, thus eliminating panic.
Works Cited
Crews, Frederick and VanSant, Ann. The Random House Handbook. New York: Random House, 1984. Print.
Fayetteville State University. Case analysis evaluation criteria. 2010. Web.
Hendrickson, Raymond. The Research Paper. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1957. Print.