Plagiarism is nothing but an “act of appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit”.
It can be categorized as:
a) Plagiarism of ideas and
b) Plagiarism of text (verbatim).
Plagiarism sabotages one’s abilities, integrity and analytical thinking process. It restricts the plagiarist from learning the intended lessons.
To avoid plagiarism is a difficult task but one only can master it with experience. Even an experienced professional writer fears accidental plagiarism. To avoid plagiarism while writing few basics should be considered, which are:
a) Be original, create a first draft without help and then start referring
b) Cite your work properly, offer due credit to author of your source information
c) Use of information is fine, but don’t copy interpretations
d) Avoid just paraphrasing, this means you are still cheating
e) Use of footnotes, endnotes and parenthetical reference helps to minimize plagiarism.
To be frank, no one expects to be 100% pure, but always put in your best to get the feel of being credible of whatever you have written.
Referencing as a solution:
Referencing is nothing but writing a full description of each source you have cited at the end of your work/article, under the heading References or Bibliography.
Why – the need to cite references?
• Strengthen your work on a factual basis
• Avoid plagiarism charges
• Put forth intenseness of your review of literature
• Offer due credit to consulted/cited authors
• To maintain track of your sources consulted during your research process.