When writing an essay or any other paper, you will inevitably do research and use external sources to create the right background and support for your claims. That’s natural. But the problem is that if you use your sources wrong, you risk being accused of plagiarism. And as we all know, a high plagiarism percentage can negatively affect the grade you will get for your work.
That’s why, if you want to get a high grade for your writing, you need to learn how to use external materials without plagiarizing them. Needless to say, this can be pretty hard, especially if you lack writing skills. But we have you covered!
In this article, we will share the top five tricks that will help you avoid plagiarism like a pro. Let’s dive in!
1. Ask for Help
If the issue with plagiarism is pressing, but there is not much time to deal with it, let’s say you have a tight deadline. The easiest way to solve the problem is to ask professional writers for help. At trusted business essay writing services like EssayService, students can get quick academic help with their writing assignments. If you use this solution, you can rest assured that the paper you receive will be 100% original and deserve the highest grade.
This solution will work great for busy students and those who want to boost their grades quickly. What’s more, the time you will save with the help of such services can be used to improve your own writing skills and eliminate the plagiarism problem once and for all.
2. Use Quotations
If you don’t want to use an academic writing service to write my essay, there is another effective yet simple solution to avoid plagiarism on your own. The trick is to use quotations when you want to paste parts of text from external sources into your paper. The thing is that direct quotes can’t be considered plagiarism. But only if you format them the right way.
To use quotations effectively, ensure that you paste text exactly as it appears in the original text. It won’t be considered a quote if you make any alterations. Also, don’t forget to put quotation marks around the piece you are pasting. And remember about the proper formatting of short and block quotations.
Finally, it is crucial to cite every quote appropriately, both inside your text and on the references page. If you follow all these rules, you will be able to eliminate plagiarism from your text and, at the same time, use direct pieces from other sources where necessary.
3. Master the Art of Paraphrasing
When using external sources for writing your paper, copying and pasting certain phrases and even passages will, of course, feel like the most effort-free path. But it is also a sure way to mess up your paper’s uniqueness score and receive a low grade. It is the number one mistake you want to avoid in academic writing. And instead of using copy-paste, you should learn to paraphrase the information.
Here’s what you should do. Read the passage you want to use several times to understand the core ideas, and then restate them in your own words. If you do this right, the percentage of coincidence between your and the original text will be minimal. As a result, your plagiarism score will be good enough to get you a high grade.
At this point, it will be fair to say that effective paraphrasing is a real art that takes time to master. But if you take enough time to practice, you will be able to start paraphrasing like a pro, and all your papers will be unique!
4. Cite Your Sources Well
Another effective way to get rid of plagiarism is to learn to cite all your sources properly. As already mentioned, there is nothing wrong with using external sources to write your academic papers. In fact, you DO need to use them. The only tricky part is that you need to refer to sources if you take information from them.
Therefore, whenever you take information from books, other papers, articles, movies, etc., be sure to cite them inside the text and then list them in your bibliography. Everything that is not your own has to be cited accordingly. Once you make it a rule, you will never have to worry about the misconduct of plagiarism.
5. Use Reliable Plagiarism Checkers
Finally, there is one more secret to writing plagiarism-free papers. You should start using anti-plagiarism software. Plagiarism checkers like Turnitin and similar are designed to detect and highlight parts of the text that are plagiarized. If you start using such tools, you will be able to see where you have plagiarized pieces in your papers. It will allow you to paraphrase plagiarized parts and, thus, boost the originality of your text.
The Bottom Line
Although plagiarism is one of the most common problems in academic writing, many students still have no clue how to deal with it. Young people tend to misuse external sources, forget to cite them, copy-paste, and make other mistakes that lead to poor scores and, thus, reduce their grades.
Hopefully, this article will help you recognize the mistakes you might’ve been making and fix them. Use the tips we shared to solve the problem of plagiarism and improve the quality of your writing!
