Plagiarism is the deliberate use of words or ideas of others to increase the value of your own work without giving credit to the sources used. In other words, plagiarism is considered theft and can result in academic dismissal.
Tips on how to avoid plagiarism
1. Cite Your Source: When alluding to an idea or wording that is not your own, add a citation in your writing that identifies the author, source, publication information and page number from which the words are taken (Use either Turabian style footnoting or in-text citation APA style)
2. Include Quotation Marks: If you insert words from source that are not your own, one of the most simple, yet obvious ways to avoid plagiarism is by using quotation marks around the text to show that the words are not your own and include the author's name to introduce the quote. For example: Paul Chamberlain succinctly notes, "There is a new and increasingly aggressive breed of skeptic today."
3. Paraphrase: Paraphrasing is rewriting a source's idea or information into your own words without changing its meaning. Reword and format your writing in an original way, and try to avoid using too many similar words or phrases from the source. Remember you are still using another's idea so you will need to include a citation to the source. Here is an example. Original: "There is a new and increasingly aggressive breed of skeptic today. Paraphrase: Paul Chamberlain warns that Christians encounter different types of skeptics that have religious backgrounds and are far more eager to prove the Christian faith wrong.
Although different wording is used the paraphrased part must be cited as well because, after all, this is Chamberlain's idea.
4. Present Your Own Idea: Instead of rehashing ideas from different authors, explore what you have to say about it. Ask yourself whether you agree with the statement and use the sources as "conversation partners." For example: Paul chamberlain warns the Christian that the new kind of critic is more aggressive, we could say, however, that the new critic is far more knowledgeable rather than more aggressive. Because this is your assessment of Chamberlain's thought, no citation is needed.
5. Use a Plagiarism Checker: While conducting your research on a topic, some phrases and sentences might stick with you so well that you inadvertently include them in your writing without citation. When in doubt, using an online plagiarism tool like Turnitin, can help you catch these issues before submitting your final work.
When you use Google docs you are able to activate the Turnitin feature. This feature will scan your paper and will detect all similarities and highlight these for you. You can look over your paper and make the proper corrections.
Steps to activate Turnitin:
1. Go to Google docs and choose a blank page.
2. On the top toolbar are the tabs Find, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Add-ons and Help.
3. Click on Add-ons and the scroll-down menu indicates Turnitin Draft Coach.
4. When you click on Turnitin Draft Coach a box will appear on the right-hand side of your screen.
5. Turnitin Draft Coach will give you three options: Similarity Check, Citation Check and Grammar Guide.
6. To check for plagiarism, choose Similarity Check.
7. Run Similarity Check (this might take up to 30 seconds depending on the size of the paper).
8. Turnitin will indicate the percentage of similarities (or sources you might have consulted).
9. Turnitin checks citations, bibliography and quotes, so make sure you ignore some of the obvious similarities and correct the similarities you did not cite.