Introduction
Researchers using other authors’ works in the study either acknowledge them or choose to utilize their own knowledge. For both the writer and the student, a temptation may arise to plagiarize a task given my career areas and studies respectively. So plagiarism is when an author, be it a writer or a student, uses the thoughts and ideas of another author without citing a source. For that reason, I learned that I was plagiarizing when I took credit for a piece of material I did not create. This paper is an entire personal reflection on the research guide as well as a tutorial on how to avoid plagiarism when tackling assignments.
Analysis of Strengths
As a present-day scholarly writer, I have an advantage in a variety of sources at my disposal to refer to when working on a task. I have understood that my writing sources are divided into three categories, namely, primary, secondary, and gray sources. Primary sources are original records on the topic under study, which have withstood the tests of time, such as different regimes, global wars, and extreme weather conditions. They can be published or unpublished and raw depending on their dates and the purpose of their creation. They may include letters, paintings and pictures, artifacts, archeological sites, and articles written by infamous people on historical events that happened during their time.
On the other hand, secondary sources include published and unpublished works of other authors. These authors also utilize information from primary events times after they happened. Published secondary sources include anthologies, monographic books, novels, religious texts, journals, periodicals, and official state and private organizations’ publications. Unpublished secondary sources will take the form of filed government and company reports, as well as term reports written by past students who studied in an institution.
Lastly, gray sources are either primary or secondary sources depending on their creators. For instance, articles written as either primary or secondary sources are in newspapers or magazines. The above three classes are available to me as a researcher and can be acquired at my institutions’ library, information offices, the World Wide Web, and national archives.
Analysis of Weakness
Although I am free to choose any source, according to an ethical writers’ code, intellectual property rights limit me to avoid plagiarism, which is my greatest weakness. However, I can avoid this by using direct quotations to strengthen and give more meaning to an argument. Other options include paraphrasing and summarizing to create a new form of originality. That is why I should show all my writing skills and do my best. For instance, I have learned that sources should be cited exhaustively and appropriately to take care of inherent plagiarism.
Growth Plan
A budding writer in me is the one who is capable of coming up with a proper plan for guidance if he has ever wanted to be successful. Therefore, I should study my combined strengths and weaknesses to be able to develop original ideas. Furthermore, I have learned that plagiarism is for lazy individuals who are eager to reduce their workload, get better grades, and avoid the most difficult part of work which is writing. They will thank their personal deities for the existence of search engines where shadow academic writers exist, seemingly unaware of property violations.
Conclusion
Whether my task is personal or professional, plagiarism is unethical, and when found guilty, I am subject to consequences as dire as college dismissal affecting my study, and court suits threatening my career as a writer.