Know All about Plagiarism

Plagiarism has always been a common phenomenon in all streams of knowledge. In the age of the internet, plagiarism is rampant. Sometimes, it is deliberate and sometimes unintentional. If you are a writer or planning to take up writing as a career or even a research fellow due to putting down your finding, you must have heard about plagiarism. Plagiarism is representing someone else’s language, ideas, thought or expressions as your own work. In the world of literature, it is called ‘literary theft’.

The first step to staying away from plagiarism is to understand it very well and know its causes and consequences. Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary 1995 defines this phenomenon as, “use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work”. Writers, scholars, and researchers are reeling out loads of words and ideas so prolifically that sometimes it is very difficult to trace the root of a certain phrase or idea. And then, with the advancement of science, technology, and novelty of artistic expressions, we are almost flooded with new coinages, inventions every now and then. As a result, we end up using words in our written documents not knowing their root and first users. This may be one example of accidental plagiarism. But, not all plagiarists fall into this apparently innocent category. There are loads of cases where a certain portion in writing or even worse, the entire document has been “wrongfully misappropriated.”

Types of Plagiarism

Based on the intention of the user, there are four types of plagiarism- direct, self and accidental plagiarism.

Direct plagiarism is when an author copies an existing source word-for-word without mentioning the original author. The deliberate lifting of someone else’s work is not an honest and ethical practice and leads to a case of serious copyright violation.

Self-plagiarism is a relatively mild form of plagiarism in terms of consequences involved. It happens when a writer publishes his or her own previous work or mixes parts of previous works as a fresh write-up. When it is less severe than an author plagiarizing someone else’s work, it does raise an ethical question and hence should be avoided.

Accidental plagiarism may take place when the authors unintentionally compose parts in a written piece that reflect similar words, language, sentence structures or words used by other writers elsewhere. The main cause of this type of plagiarism is the negligence of the author to mention the original source. Therefore, a careful and thorough citation can prove to be remedial measures. To avoid accidental plagiarism, authors should cite their sources and take careful and accurate notes when doing research. Cases of accidental plagiarism are taken as seriously as any other plagiarism and are subject to the same range of consequences as other types of plagiarism.

How to deal with plagiarism?

Paraphrase: Whether you are writing an academic essay or a novel, referring to outside sources may be crucial for you. If you feel compelled to use such a source, use them appropriately. Sometimes, it is absolutely necessary to mention radical work by the exponents of the particular field. In such case, paraphrasing is a great idea if you want to include information from outside sources in your written article.

Using quotation is another great way avoid plagiarism is by using quotations. Where you feel you cannot do without a particular sentence or a group of words express exactly the same meaning as you may want to convey, put that part in quotation mark. And you do not have to resort to any alteration which may disturb usual association of meaning. But when you do so, remember to include that in the list of citations.

Cite sources:  As discussed in the above point, citing the works of the individuals you have referred to in your writing is the best practice among writers and scholars to steer clear of any accusation of plagiarism. It is also useful as it helps to anchor your work to a particular canon of literature.

After a considerable deal of research, if you are still not sure of whether or not your final write-up harbors plagiarized content, simply resort to plagiarism checker software. There are plenty of such items that will not only check your manuscript but also extracts the sources so that you choose to paraphrase them or cite them in the reference.

What to do if your work gets plagiarized?

What if it is your work that is plagiarized?  The best proof against plagiarism is registering copyright for your work. Copyright recognizes the sole rights of the writer over their works and confers power to the creator to decide the use of the work, commercial or otherwise by others. If you choose to self-publish your work, most of the publishers take care of copyright registration as part of the package. However, copyright laws are quite stern violation of which can lead to legal repercussions or monetary loss.

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