Plagiarism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Plagiarism - Essay Example In simple terms, the use of another person’s work without giving due acknowledge to the source constitutes plagiarism. The first step towards avoiding plagiarism is to admit that adhering to the strategies for avoiding plagiarism makes a person no less of a great writer. The following paragraphs of the essay are used to lay out how students can strategized their writing to avoid cases and instances of plagiarism in a wake of an era when plagiarism is gaining more and prominence throughout universities in the world. Strategies for avoiding Plagiarism One of the first strategies to avoiding plagiarism is to identify the appropriate mechanism instituted in the selection of a group of words belonging to another person. By academic provisions, a student is expected to either paraphrase a group of words belonging to another person or bring quotation marks when the words are taken verbatim (University of Michigan’s Scholarly Publishing Office, 2006). ... An example can be cited with the same example above to read as ‘plagiarism remains a critical component of academic dishonesty’. From the structure of the paraphrased sentence, it can be seen that the central theme of the original message is maintained while keeping about the same number of words. It is in light of this that the Durkin University (2012) states that â€Å"a paraphrase is the rephrasing of a short passage from a text, in about the same number of words.† The next strategy to paraphrasing and using quotations is much related to paraphrasing and using quotation and this has to do with using in-text citation. In-text citation simply refers to a provision whereby the writer states the name of the original owner of any quotation or paraphrase made Durkin University (2012). In most jurisdictions, it is expected that the writer will also state the date of publication of the said source. The general idea behind in-text citation is therefore for the writer to state the name of original owner and the date of publication. However, depending on the referencing format or style being used by the writer, there are difference ways in which in-text citations will be made. Some of the referencing styles are APA, Harvard and Oxford. It is very important for a student who wants to avoid problems with plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty to have a fairer idea of how to use in-text citation for the different referencing styles. In a typical APA referencing style, a write who indicates the name of original owner and date before the quotation or paraphrase will be expected to write the surname of the owner and put the date in parenthesis. Example is Gardener (2011). If the source is an institution, it is expected that the