Plagiarism is something everyone wants to avoid, but few manage to do it. Sometimes, plagiarism is intentional which may make others have a bad impression on you and your skills. But most of the time, plagiarism is not intentional and it happens because people do not organize and cite their sources accordingly.
Presenting someone else’s ideas and words as your own is not ethical and moral, and especially university professors keep an eye on this. Students, reporters, bloggers, or journalists are the most predisposed to unintentional plagiarism, things that will come with consequences for their grades, reputation, and image.
So, if you want to write content for your website or just got a job in the content writing industry, you need to avoid plagiarism at all costs. But if it is often unintentional and those who do it are not aware of this, how could you avoid plagiarism? Well, there are a few guidelines that will help you organize your sources better and get away from plagiarism.
Research the Topic and Organize Your Sources
When you need to write on a specific topic and want to deliver a high-quality paper, you need to research thoroughly. Thanks to the evolution of technology, you can find a lot of studies, articles, and facts on your subject online.
The internet is a vast place so you need to carefully choose your sources. Avoid citing from Wikipedia and use it to find more information and further reading materials. Choose sources that are high-authoritative and not fake or scam. And next, you should organize the sources. When you research, you come across a wide diversity of information, so when you highlight the one you want to cite in your paper, make sure you note the source too.
Many students end up plagiarizing because they did not note the source and forget where they have read it, so they end up presenting it as their own. This is why it is important to note all your sources down to know the origin of every piece of information.
Using Plagiarism Tools
But even though you organize your sources carefully and use proper citation methods, you still can miss some sources. This happens naturally, as you need to be very focused when you work on your article. Tiredness, lack of sleep, and other factors could make you more prone to plagiarizing. This is why you should use a plagiarism checker tool. You can find online a safe assignment plagiarism checker to run your articles through and see if they are 100% original. These kinds of tools are very helpful to writers, bloggers, journalists, and students as avoiding plagiarism is something they have to do.
Cite the Sources Accordingly
Another way students end up plagiarizing is because they do not use the proper citation methods. Quoting and paraphrasing are different ways of citing properly and avoiding plagiarism in your content for a site. Quoting is used when you cannot paraphrase what others have said because the meaning of their words would be lost.
You can also quote when you want to share the exact definition that other authors have agreed on and want your readers to see their original writing style and ideas. When you quote, always use quotation marks and add the source. Students are looking for writing tips and they think about hiring a writer to avoid plagiarism, but knowing the right citation methods can easily help you do this.
Paraphrasing is used in most cases and it is one of the recommended methods. Even though you do not copy-paste the information in your blog post or website article, you need to cite the source when paraphrasing too. This way of citing the sources is often the preferred one by most writers because it shows that you have read the original source and understood the information presented. Paraphrasing does not mean that you copy-paste the quote and you just change a few words. The paraphrasing needs to be done completely.
Writing blog posts and articles for a website, no matter if it is yours or a client’s, needs to be done carefully. Delivering plagiarized papers and articles does not come with any good consequences. If you are a student, you will get a bad grade and also be prone to expulsion or suspension. And if you are a journalist or blogger, this will not be a good advertisement.
So, there are a few ways you can avoid plagiarism in your content for a site. Research thoroughly and organize your sources carefully. Use proper citation methods, among which quoting and paraphrasing. Last but not least, use plagiarism tools to make sure you have totally avoided plagiarism. Even though it may sound challenging to do this as plagiarism is most of the time unintentional, these guidelines and tools can help you succeed in your attempt.
