With increasing frequency, schools and universities are using Web-based plagiarism checking services to scan newspapers for stolen material. And the consequences can be dire: at one end of this spectrum, a failing grade for the assignment; in the other end, dismissal from an academic program. If you are intentionally plagiarizing in your dissertation paper, thesis, or dissertation, this will give you pause. However, if you're not intentionally plagiarizing, there could still be reason for concern. Plagiarism checking software catches an ever-growing amount of appropriated substance --and sometimes the student has not even meant to do anything wrong! In what follows, I'd like to offer some simple strategies for avoiding plagiarism of the unintentional variety.
1. Know what constitutes plagiarism. Simply put, plagiarism is using those words or thoughts of another person without giving credit to the person from whom they are borrowed. Right off the bat, this tells us something important: you can not simply change a couple of words of a borrowed text (so the passage is no more a direct quote ) and think that you're out of danger. Unless the substance is"common understanding," a citation is needed for any material you borrow--if it is a direction quote, a paraphrase, or even just an idea.
2. Know what your thesis advisor will look for. Before the advent of the computer, professors grabbed pupils who plagiarized; the world wide web has just made it much simpler. So what might give a hint to a professor the material you've presented as your own really came from somebody else?
Fluctuations in design
Vocabulary that isn't common for you
Harsh relations between passages
Deviations at the point of view where the text is composed
Contradictions in the notions or positions preserved in the paper
The failure of this paper to address the specific topic assigned (indicating it may have been borrowed or bought)
The unavailability on your university/college library of the resources referenced in the paper
The use of entirely Web-based sources
Recognizing the material (Your professor is most likely an expert in this field, after all!)
By itself, nothing on this particular list is a guarantee that substance has been plagiarized. On the other hand, the combination of several of those points will surely raise suspicions and will most likely cause your professor to dig deeper.
3. Know how anti-plagiarism applications work. In case a college, college professor or professor is using a Web-based anti-plagiarism provider, it is a fantastic idea to be aware of what the program searches for. If you are blatantly plagiarizing, odds are that you won't outsmart those programs; if you're not intentionally plagiarizing, understanding the applications will allow you to avoid plagiarizing inadvertently. Anti-plagiarism programs currently in use do a mix of the following:
Search the web for word strings that may have been lifted. The easiest way to get caught plagiarizing is to take something from a source available on the Internet. You will almost certainly get trapped, as even the simplest and cheapest programs do so much. Even if your source is no longer available on the Web, it might still be accessible to the anti-plagiarism hunt as long as it had been on the internet at once.
Search databases of newspapers, theses, dissertations, articles, and books, usually assessing your newspaper against countless archived sources. This means that even print resources that have never been available online may turn up in the hunt.
Compare files. This permits universities and professors to submit multiple newspapers (even over a number of years) to compare them for material that they share in common.
Make inner comparisons. The more sophisticated applications use algorithms to analyze sentence structure and synonyms, allowing them to capture even paraphrased material that has not been replicated exactly.
4. Don't cut-and-paste. By definition, if you are doing so, you are borrowing substance, and you are likely to leave clues (see tip #2, above). Be aware that this rule applies even to borrowing your personal material from papers you have written before. If you ignore this principle, then make sure you mention the origin of whatever you've borrowed.
5. Do not paraphrase without mentioning the source. Yes, it is plagiarism even if you change the words. If it's somebody else's thought, then a citation is needed. Always.
6. If you use somebody else's words, then constantly use quote marks (or block quote formatting). Period.
7. Know your style sheet. If you don't adhere to the right conventions, then you could accidentally wind up being accused of stealing the substance.
8. That is the one big gray area--what actually is"common knowledge"? If you can't find the source, shed the content from your paper.
9. Get your work edited. Whether you rely on a professional editing service, a professor, somebody from your college's writing center, or even a really smart friend, a second set of eyes may catch what you missed, saving you a major hassle in the long run.
Wishing you success in your own dissertation writing