5 Strategies and Practices to Avoid Plagiarism in Your Assignments

No matter whether you are working on your academic or professional written assignment, you need to make sure there is as little plagiarism as possible. Most people seem to complain about the fact that they cannot get rid of plagiarism even after writing everything as differently as possible.

More often than not, in these cases, plagiarism occurs because such people have developed some bad writing habits and strategies. In this article, we are going to highlight some of the most important things that you can do to avoid plagiarism.

With these strategies, you too will be able to write content that appears authentic as well as unique. So, stay with us to learn everything that there is about avoiding plagiarism in your assignments.

Here are the top 5 strategies to avoid plagiarism in your content

Top 5 strategies to avoid plagiarism in your content

1. Learn Proper Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing isn’t just writing down thoughts, words, and ideas of someone else in your own words. It also involves writing the given material in a way that makes it simpler, while keeping the central theme intact.

Paraphrasing requires extreme care since using different words can sometimes alter the meaning of the material and make it irrelevant to your assignment.    

Good paraphrasing can eliminate plagiarism to a very great extent. Make sure to use simple words, easy-to-understand vocabulary, and simple sentence structures while paraphrasing.

Avoid making the content wordy and be as concise as possible. Also, there are so many great paraphrasing tools out there that you can use to make sure there isn’t any plagiarism in your content.

Paraphraser makes it easier for you to write unique assignments, without putting in a lot of manual effort.

While paraphrasing, try not to deviate from the actual theme and avoid using similar words as are present in the source material. Following these simple rules, you can easily come up with content that is both interesting as well as unique.

2. Do Your Research

Let’s say you wish to complete an assignment related to a certain topic given to you by your boss, or a teacher. If you go online and pick a single source and paraphrase everything from there, the chances of plagiarism will be very high.

Instead, you need to visit a lot of different sources and find stuff that is most relevant to your topic. You need to channel all your creativity while writing from various sources to avoid plagiarism.

If your assignment is well researched and you have included several references and citations, it is proof that you have tried your best to get rid of plagiarism.

Conducting proper research on the subject matter before writing down your assignment will inspire you to write in a different way using your own perspective.

A well-researched assignment will have minimum plagiarism and you can eliminate it further using some plagiarism checking tool and then by proofreading.

On the other hand, writing from a single source will ultimately lead to a lot of issues down the line including huge waste of time when removing plagiarism.  

3. Use Quotations

Quotations are just inverted commas that are put at the beginning and end of sentences that belong to someone else. Quotations are a clear indicator that the words being used in the assignment are not owned by you, instead, you are just quoting someone else to make your material more informative as well as engaging.

Using quotation marks you can write thoughts, ideas, or words of someone else as it is without risking plagiarism. After the quotation mark, you can also write the name of the original author or the source.

You can use quotation marks in various cases such as, writing a definition, quoting scripture, or presenting the words of some well-known personality in the exact same way.

Make sure to not overdo the quotation marks since it shows you lack creativity and that you are just relying on others for your assignment.

You need to make sure the assignment you are writing only has quotations where it is not possible for you to expand a certain aspect using your own knowledge.

Writing a quote without citing its source can also constitute plagiarism and that is why you need to make sure to never make that mistake.

4. Using a Plagiarism Checker Tool

One of the most common and effective ways to avoid plagiarism is by using plagiarism checking tools. This method saves your time and allows you to write content with zero repetition or plagiarism.

These tools are available in both paid as well as free versions and you can access these online without having to install any apps.

Most free plagiarism checking tools can scan 1000 to 1500 words at the same time. On the other hand, some tools do not have any word limit if you go for their paid versions.

These tools compare your written material to a database of billions of similar files. Once the scan is done, you are given a report that shows the percentage of plagiarism, lines that have plagiarism, and their sources.

Once you know the source of plagiarism, you can alter these lines to make sure they are entirely different. After that, you can check the plagiarism once more to see if it has been removed from the assignment or not.

These tools allow you to identify as well as remove plagiarism while wasting very little of your time or energy. Most content writers and academic researchers rely on these tools to write material that is entirely unique.

5. Learn the Art of Citation

Citations are usually included at the end of your assignment as a reference. A good citation includes the name of the source, its publishing date, and the full name of the original writer.

No matter if you get your information from a magazine, book, article, or website, you must always cite the source since it shows you value honesty and fairness.

Citations can be added in a variety of styles based on the requirement of your teacher or supervisor. These styles are based on the order in which information about the source is arranged.

The most common types of citations are APA, MLA, and Chicago. In all of these styles, information about the source is arranged differently and you need to ask your professor to help you with yours.

Writing words of someone else without citation can lead to plagiarism and if you get caught, you will be liable for various lawsuits. So, we urge you to always cite your source when writing down words of someone else.

Final Thoughts

Now you know how to avoid plagiarism in your assignments. Most of these methods are used daily by millions of academic and non-academic writers. If you add quotations, and a reference sheet at the end, proofread and check plagiarism before submitting your work, you will not have to worry about plagiarism whatsoever.

We really hope you have found this information helpful, and we wish you the very best in writing your current and future plagiarism-free assignments. Just make sure to follow these few points carefully and we assure you that you will soon be able to write distinct content with less effort.