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Plagiarism: How to avoid it?

Referencing Guides

There are some very useful referencing guides which you can follow to prepare your reference list.

APA (7th edition) Citation Guide

Turnitin

Use of LSH Resources available at ECAE will hep you to find out and  reduce the percentage of plagiarism 

Grammarly 

Grammarly Premium Guide

RefWorks

RefWorks Guide

NoodleTools 

NoodleTools How to Guide

Tutorials on using NoodleTools

 

5 Free Online Plagiarism Checkers – Which Works in 2021

Things to remember

 

It is important  to cite or refer the sources you used in you research papers. This includes direct quotations and paraprahing. Citing your work allows to avoid Plagiarising. It will always enhance your own research work; however bear in mind that these should be used to support your own theories, do not overuse them.

Inserting a citation: quote the text literally (words or sentences) between quotation marks, citing the author’s name and the source or provenance of the citation

Inserting a sample: quote the text literally (words or sentences), usually increasing the indent for the paragraph, citing the author’s name and the source or provenance of the citation

Summing up: mention the author and source, use quotation marks for specific terms used by the author of the text; you may also highlight terms borrowed from the author of the text with a specific style (italics for instance) After taking these precautions, you may render the main ideas of a text in your own words.

Providing a translation: mention the author and source of the original. Creating a new version of the text does not waive your duty to cite its original reference.

Paraphrasing a text: mention the author and source of the original. Taking up someone else’s ideas in your own way does not waive your citing duty.

Avoiding plagiarism

There are three simple rules you can follow to avoid plagiarism:

  1. When you want to include an exact phrase, sentence or passage from a source, use a quotation.
  2. When you want to express an idea or information from a source, paraphrase or summarize it entirely in your own words.
  3. Always cite the source when you quote, paraphrase, or summarize.

Citing sources

To cite correctly, choose a citation style and follow it consistently. Your university department or the journal you’re submitting to will usually specify which citation style to use, but the most common styles are APA, MLA and Chicago Style.

To cite a source, you need:

  1. A brief citation in the text, which may be a parenthetical citation or a numbered note.
  2. A full reference, which usually appears in a list at the end of your paper.

As well as citing scholarly sources like books and journal articles, keep in mind that you should also cite information or ideas that you found in non-academic sources, like websites, newspapers or YouTube videos.

Each type of source has its own reference format.