Whether you are writing a simple essay, newspaper, article, or website content, there are certain things you should avoid doing. To make sure your work is not accused of being copied and pasted without credit, you need to take efforts.
Plagiarism is a severe allegation, not only is it illegal, but the penalties can range from a large fine to losing your job.
So how to avoid or remove plagiarism? And what can you do to ensure your content is plagiarism-free?
Let us look at the eight most common mistakes writers make when they create the content. And understand how you can avoid such mistakes to create unique content.
Eight ways to avoid plagiarism:
1. Use tools
Develop a good habit to double-check your work before submitting it to your boss or client or publication. There are various free plagiarism checker tools available online. If you develop the ritual of doubling checking your content through multiple tools such as Grammarly Plagiarism checker, Small SEO Tools, Scribbr Plagiarism, Viper Plagiarism, you are safe enough to share your work. These tools scan your content line by line for detecting any plagiarism that might get you in trouble. So, make sure to use these free tools to change the content in case of plagiarism.
2. Follow standard procedure
Most companies nowadays have a dedicated team that checks your content for plagiarism explicitly. Hence, you should follow the standard rules of content creation to adhere to the approval criteria. There are also certain things you should not do when preparing your content piece, such as:
- Most business requirements need the content to be written in a single font. So do not change the font unless asked for.
- It’s hard to read different font sizes in the single article. Hence, follow a constant font size(except the headings) nor too small nor too big.
If you follow these two simple rules, you will differentiate your content from the published content you have used for understanding the topic. If it doesn’t show you positive results, it’s high time you should get your content checked by professional who would suggest you follow specific basic rules of content creation.
3. Get a second opinion
Make sure you cross-check your work for plagiarism by yourself and any professional who would understand the concept. A little bit of help for careful checks can go a long way. You may ask a well-read friend, mentor or senior for a reference. Make sure you cross-check with at least three sources before publishing anything, especially if you submit the work to a well-established firm or expert client.
4. Avoid Idea Plagiarism
The most common type of plagiarism is idea plagiarism. This is where someone reads someone else’s work and uses parts of it without giving proper credit to the original author. For example, if I am reading a book about the history of railroads, I take notes on the subject because I am studying the subject in school and then use the information to write an essay on the same topic. This is called “Idea Plagiarism”. Strictly avoid using someone else’s idea to build your content. Get the knowledge you need and bring your perspective on the topic to prevent this type of plagiarism.
5. Refrain from Copy – Paste Plagiarism
This is the worst kind the plagiarism that you could be accused of! The act of copying text (phrases, lines, paragraphs) from another source is called copy-paste plagiarism. Basically, someone takes information from many sources, including books, magazines, websites, and even other online published content. They use it for new content creation without giving proper credit. Whether or not your company or client punishes this action is for them to decide, but there are some instances where it may cost heavily to your content writing career.
6. Avoid Paraphrase plagiarism
Perhaps the most common form of plagiarism is copying the entire sections of someone else’s text and rewriting them as your own. For instance, if you are writing answers in the exam, maybe you could use the writer’s idea to prove your point but if you are cheating from the textbook and rewriting the writer’s complete paragraphs its Paraphrase plagiarism. If you are doing such things, remember to cite the original author and include a link back to their website or blog. In this way, you will be doing the original authors a favour by giving them a link back to their work, which boosts their reputation and you get good ideas for your content.
7. Improve your reading
It can be hard to know exactly how to avoid plagiarism if you write on very common topics? You will undoubtedly make a few redundant sentences, especially if you’re not an avid reader or experienced writer. One way to keep your work looking original is to read other works by the same person or with the same ideas as yours. You can also consult a few bookstores to find other works that you enjoy reading. Even if you cannot completely avoid plagiarism, you should exercise more caution when picking your sources.
8. Detect the referred sources
One of the best ways to avoid plagiarism is by checking your content through various tools to catch all the referred sources. If you are writing after researching the topic intensively, check to see if some other author wrote the work as you just read it. Using the tool, you can find if the content has been copied from an outside source, then you may want to reword or rewrite the text a bit so that it reads correctly. This is how you avoid plagiarism detection by the client.
Conclusion:
There is more to know about avoiding plagiarism, but this short article has given you the starting points. As a reminder, to truly understand how to prevent plagiarism, you will need to do more than merely re-reading the content. Make sure that you read and re-read use tools, take 2nd opinion of your work and then move to the last step of submission.
Now, if you feel comfortable with the text, have proofread and approved it from various seniors, supervisors, and popular tools. Then that’s a great piece of work! You can indeed submit your work to the client.
However, If you are still unsure, contact our content team to get your work done within 24 hours!