As a student, you have undoubtedly noticed that most academic writing assignments require some form of research to complete. Research involves the use of other people’s work, ideas, and opinions to support your perspective on a particular subject. Most of the time, you will be able to carry out the research but will fail to cite, paraphrase, or rewrite all the copied content. This will inevitably result in you submitting plagiarized content. When asked, “what is plagiarism?” What comes to mind.
Simply put, plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else’s work as your own. It is a form of fraud that entails the use of another person’s ideas, opinions, or any other intellectual property without properly crediting the creator or author. There many types of academic dishonesty that may be considered as plagiarism. Often most students who are caught plagiarizing do not have the necessary skills to effectively avoid plagiarism, skills such as being able to read, understand and translate various sources of information for use within our assignments, as well as knowledge on how to correctly cite and reference these external sources of information.
Once the teacher is alerted of your academic transgression, you have no control over the outcome of events. However, to be on the safe side, you can use an independent plagiarism detection system to scan your document and have the opportunity to re-write, paraphrase, and cite all the copied content within your paper. This way, you learn what does plagiarism means and you can also be sure that the paper you submit will not be flagged due to plagiarized content. Therefore, you will not have to suffer the repercussions of submitting copied content.
What Does Plagiarism Mean for You Academic Assignments
With any writing assignment, you are required to deliver, be sure to use your own words. This is a phrase that cannot be emphasized enough, and it is the mantra of most educators worldwide. As a student, this is the best advice you could receive; mainly because the consequences of using another person’s work without giving them the credit that is due is a form of academic fraud that is known as plagiarism, which has severe academic consequences.
In today’s world, there are a lot of technological advancements in the learning environment, such as the continued use of the internet to facilitate learning. Most pieces of information, opinions, or ideas are readily available online, whereby most students are tempted to copy this data directly. Therefore, what is the definition of plagiarism today and why should you exercise a lot of restraint when copying and presenting information from the internet within your assignments, such as using proper citations and quotations? You should take your time when researching to be able to confidently say that you have correctly cited or re-write the information from all external sources.
The question that you should now ask is, “what are the consequences of plagiarism?” here are some of the obvious ramifications of submitting plagiarized content:
- Plagiarism destroys your academic and personal reputation
Your teacher will most likely have to scrutinize your future assignments more than the rest as your status is already damaged, and you cannot be trusted to deliver quality content.
- It could lead to legal action due to copyright laws that may be in place, i.e., fines and penalties
Sometimes, you are likely to face legal action when caught plagiarizing information that is protected by copyright infringement laws. However, it is not that common in lower levels of learning institutions.
- There is a likelihood that you will be expelled from the course or institution
Most learning institutions have a strict no-tolerance policy for plagiarism. As such, when caught plagiarizing, you are likely to be suspended or expelled from the course or learning institution.
- Cancelation of results for your entire paper
If the amount of plagiarism is significant, the teacher can determine that you did not do the work and recommend that you repeat the whole assignment from scratch.
Types of Plagiarism and What is Considered Plagiarism
Now that you know precisely what is plagiarism, what are the consequences of plagiarism, you are far better placed to deliver high-quality papers. About the effects mentioned above and the frequency at which students plagiarize their assignments, it is high time that students learn of the different plagiarism types. These types of plagiarism range from complete plagiarism of your paper which is the most severe form of plagiarism to other less severe types such as paraphrasing and incorrect citations which are often categorized as unintentional forms of plagiarism.
Hence, it is imperative to understand the different types of plagiarism completely, how they occur, and how you can avoid them in your papers. So, “what types of plagiarism exist?” There are quite a few types of plagiarism that you should know about to steer clear off effectively. They include:
- Complete plagiarism
- Incremental plagiarism
- Direct plagiarism
- Self-plagiarism
- Accidental plagiarism
- Paraphrasing
- Wrong citations
- Mosaic plagiarism
By now, I know you are wondering, “what is self-plagiarism?” this is considered as copying or presenting work that you had previously submitted for marking. That is why most of your student papers during the entirety of your studies are stored in institutional repositories to ensure that cases of self-plagiarism are eliminated. Though, to understand what is considered plagiarism, you should know that not all the forms mentioned above of plagiarism are similar and are likely to attract different consequences.
It is up to the teacher or learning institution to determine whether or not the act of plagiarism was deliberate or unintentional. Knowing this plays an essential role in explaining yourself if you are caught plagiarizing. That is exactly why learning more about plagiarism is a crucial component of most major learning institutions worldwide. This is made possible with the implementation of plagiarism tutorials and tests to enlighten students about plagiarism and its consequences. These tutorials teach about the severity of both deliberate and accidental forms of plagiarism.
What Is the Meaning of Plagiarism for Students
When you consider what is the meaning of plagiarism, for students, this means the use of another person’s ideas and opinions without properly giving credit to the source. As a student, this is a tedious activity that requires you to keep an accurate record of all the references used within your paper and also having to understand what constitutes plagiarism.
As such, you should ask yourself, “what is a good rule to follow to avoid plagiarism?” To answer your question first, you need to have a clear picture of what ideas you want to tackle within your assignment. With a clear roadmap, you will be less inclined to populate your paper with information from online sources to meet the minimum requirements for your paper’s word count. Consequently, you will have less information to cite and paraphrase, thus effectively reducing the possibility of having plagiarized content within your documents.
Another sure method of ensuring that you submit a paper that contains no copied content is to use our online plagiarism detection and grammar correction systems. Not only will you get an accurate plagiarism report, but you will also get suggestions of where you need to change your paper content to improve the grammar and sentence structure within your paper.
What’s Plagiarism from a Teacher’s Perspective
As a teacher to be able to reduce copying among students, you need to understand what’s plagiarism. There is a substantial body of research dedicated to the reduction of cases of plagiarism that includes student views, as well as their proposals as to how to effectively go about this problem. It is understandable that as a teacher, you want the best for your students.
As such, the purpose of writing assignments is to teach students new skills and enable them to learn about new concepts in their area of study. However, due to cases of plagiarism, the effectiveness of these writing tasks is significantly reduced. Therefore, it is up to the teachers and professors to educate their students about what happens if you plagiarize an assignment.
Teachers should be clear about what happens when you plagiarize, such as the repercussions and consequences you will face. By so doing, more and more students will realize the importance of delivering original assignments and avoid plagiarism.
Understand What Is Global Plagiarism and Other Forms of Piracy
To answer the question, “what is global plagiarism?” this is a form of plagiarism that takes place when a student presents an entire paper that is not his/ her own original creation. This is not a new form of plagiarism, only that people are beginning to realize it now. When compared to other types of plagiarism, it is a severe form of piracy that is seriously looked down upon in the academic community. A good example is having an expert, friend, or family member write your assignment on your behalf. When you submit this assignment, it is highly likely that it will not show up on any plagiarism detection systems but will definitely raise some red flags due to the subtle changes in the presentation of ideas, and writing style.
Also, you should understand other forms of plagiarism, such as getting to know what is incremental plagiarism. This is the type of plagiarism that is characterized by failing to give credit to some part of your paper that is obtained from other people’s work. You have likely already encountered this form of plagiarism when you submit your documents for marking; whereby some sections of your paper are highlighted as being plagiarized. This form of plagiarism is not as severe as other types such as global plagiarism and are often unintentional.
Another common form of piracy is internet plagiarism. So, what is internet plagiarism? This is also referred to as content scrapping/ copy-pasting information and media from various online sources to form your paper without including accurate citations and quotes. This is a significant challenge for students today, especially with the widespread use of the internet and other online resources in the learning environment. As a student, you will also be faced with the challenge of having to verify these online sources as most of them are peer-reviewed and may not have the correct information about a particular author or owner of the data.
Therefore, you should always take into consideration the copyright laws that govern the use of various sources of information within your paper. Copyright is defined as the assignable/ exclusive rights that are given to the creator/ writer of any work or media for a given number of years. As such, it is pertinent that you understand entirely what is copyright and plagiarism. The reason for this is because plagiarism is considered copyright infringement.
By now you should be able to tell what is not plagiarism with the use of our plagiarism reports. “what is plagiarism report,” you ask. This is a document that is generated from your paper to highlight all the copied information within it. You will receive a plagiarism report each time you upload your article on our website to help you identify which parts of the paper are plagiarized and offer you the necessary information to cite or paraphrase the information adequately.
You no longer have to wait for your teacher to penalize you for plagiarizing your assignment. Get the upper hand by using our plagiarism detection system to identify and correct any instances of plagiarism within your assignments. Scan your papers now.