Paraphrasing Plagiarism: Best Tips Collection

After leaving school, young people aspire to enter higher education institutions and obtain degrees. Their majors are very different, with some choosing state polytechnics while others prefer to study something as narrow as veterinary medicine at Cornell. Still, others are interested in more general and prestigious places like Harvard or Stanford. The unifying element is the essay writing task that all these students must complete. It’s not as effortless as it sounds, and rewriting plagiarism is an essential skill here.

Plagiarism is copying information from a source and its presentation in work. It is essential to avoid this situation, as even the most minor case can result in a failing grade or suspension.

Dr Donald McCabe with International Center for Academic Integrity said in their study that 62 per cent of undergraduate students and 40 percent of graduate students admit to cheating on written assignments.

Knowing how and when to cite sources is an essential skill for students. Whether borrowing someone’s ideas from a textbook, a blog post, or an academic journal, you must give appropriate credit while representing the source ideas fairly and consistently. quotation marks

What is plagiarism?

It defines plagiarism as “using another person’s words, ideas, findings, or images without giving that person due credit to create the impression that it is your work.”

Types of Plagiarism

The Harvard Writing Program documents six common forms of plagiarism:

Verbatim plagiarism: The first type is where you are copying someone else’s work verbatim.

Mosaic plagiarism: You take snippets from one or more sources but must explain the information or quote it adequately.

Inappropriate paraphrase: The paraphrase is too similar to the original content.

Unauthorised Paraphrase: You correctly paraphrase someone else’s content without attributing the source.

Un-cited: You need to give readers the source to cite information in your article.

Use other students’ work: You can submit other students’ ideas and get full credit.

It is important to note that plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. Accidental plagiarism occurs when students inadvertently cite sources inaccurately or inappropriately. On the other hand, deliberate plagiarism occurs when students choose not to cite sources or attempt to pass off somebody else’s ideas as their own.

Consequences of plagiarism

Consequences of plagiarism vary by institution but may result in your expulsion or withdrawal from the program. In less severe cases, intentional or unintentional plagiarism can result in suspension, fines, or suspension. In addition to academic consequences, plagiarism can tarnish your reputation and reduce your integrity. Therefore, plagiarism is never good, whether in school or the workplace.

How to avoid plagiarism?

Learning to incorporate research into your writing is the key to avoiding plagiarism. According to the plagiarism information page on the AssignmentWritinGuru website, it can be done by:

Quotation marks: If you don’t want to change the infinitive, use quotation marks around all literal phrases.

Summarize: If you find a few relevant points in a long text, reduce them to your summary.

Paraphrase: If you want to use the source information, paraphrase with a new paraphrase in your own words, with the same or slightly more words than the original.

What is a paraphrase?

On the other hand, paraphrasing is expressing the meaning of the excerpt in your own words. It shows the reader that you did your research and understood the content. At the same time, students may know that they need to cite sources, and many struggles to explain the ideas of others in their own words. However, like many aspects of writing, effective paraphrasing is a skill that develops over time.

Improper paraphrasing

Incorrect interpretation is a prevalent form of plagiarism. This is when a person removes a direct phrase from another work, changes only a few words, and then claims that work as their own entirely. Learning to paraphrase correctly is a significant part of good writing. But remember, just because you interpreted it ideally doesn’t mean you don’t need to cite the source of the original idea. Paraphrasing is just a way of translating someone else’s thoughts into words without making that thought your own.

How to avoid it?

The purpose of paraphrasing is to translate the original text into your diction and sentence structure. The most useful way to deal with this is to focus on the meaning of the text, forcing you to engage with its purpose and context.

Paraphrasing skills

An excellent way to gauge how well you understand the material is to see if you can explain it to others. Once you have this level of understanding, it becomes easier to create effective paraphrases - changing the language and structure of clips becomes more manageable.

A Good paraphrase strategy

There are several ways to explain plagiarism. Check out the list below and choose your favourite base.

Verify a sentence. Put more words in, expand it, and add your thoughts.

Change the structure or the word itself. Use gerunds instead of infinitives and rely on synonyms to avoid direct repetition.

Use free paraphrase tools. It’s for parts you want to rework yourself.

Manipulate upvotes and downvotes. Replace them with each other.

Here are a few things students who plagiarise should remember. First, ensure your text is a smooth mosaic of impossible word combinations and meaningless repetitions. Use an excellent free plagiarism checker to grade the final result to ensure no plagiarism.

Here are some tips to help you reformulate:

Re-read the text until you fully understand what it means.

Write your segment summaries, and don’t return to how you were.

Make sure your abstract accurately captures the context of the original paragraph.

Record source information in summary, whether on a note card or paper.

Use quotation marks around the required textual information.

Remember, you still need to quote paraphrases, but the following analysis and discussion points are yours.

Paraphrasing vs Plagiarism Major Differences

Plagiarism is copying a portion of someone else’s content and presenting it without citing the author, thereby claiming it as your own. Also, remember that plagiarism can be unintentional, including incorrect sentences or poor paraphrases. The text should only appear to have been copied if you cite the real author unless you use direct citations.

The definitions of paraphrasing are complementary. First, it’s the ability to interpret text so it passes all plagiarism check systems and comes clean. You should be able to summarize the author’s main ideas and express them in your own words.

The difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing is how close the text is to the original. You can define plagiarism as verbatim copying, which is not allowed. Paraphrases help present the same idea but don’t repeat what’s already been written somewhere. This is a great way to trust someone’s text without copying it.

What do citations require?

Any time you use information that is not publicly known or that you have not discovered yourself, you must cite it. Citations are required for the following, usually via in-text citations or bibliographic entries:

Quotes: If you’re quoting someone’s actual words, put those words in quotation marks and cite the source.

Information and ideas: If you get an idea or information from elsewhere, please cite it - even if you paraphrase the original.

Illustrations: If you use charts, tables, graphs, or other people’s artwork, you must give credit. These may also require a license and copyright notice.

Common General Knowledge About Paraphrasing

You don’t need to cite information in the public domain as long as you restate a known fact. According to AssignmentWritinGuru’s Basic Citation Guidelines page, information must have the following features to be considered general knowledge:

Readers will already be aware of this.

This is a widely accepted fact. For example, there are 24 hours a day.

It can be accessed through shared information resources.

Its origin is folklore or a well-known story.

He is generally famous in his field and well-known to his audience.

Why are citations influential?

Citing is more important than avoiding plagiarism. For example, AssignmentWritinGuru’s plagiarism information page cites the following:

Differentiate new ideas from existing information.

Strengthen an argument on a particular topic.

It allows readers to find their sources and implement additional information.

Keep up the ethical research and writing.

Ensure attribution of ideas and avoid plagiarism

Proper citations also increase your credibility with readers and demonstrate your critical thinking and strong writing skills.

Prevent Plagiarism Writing Resources

Developing strong writing and paraphrasing skills takes time. Writing as a discussion rather than a report can help you build your skills. Remember, it’s not about reporting and repeating information; it’s about expanding ideas and making them your own.

If you need help with paraphrasing, you can find some great resources online. AssignmentWritinGuru has an online writing platform with drafting tips, but expert writers will help you finish the job in no time. Avoiding plagiarism is an essential skill to practice, and with the help of our experts, you can overcome it in no time.