How to detect and avoid accidental plagiarism?
Plagiarism is not acceptable in any form. Accidental plagiarism will not be treated leniently. If there is plagiarism in a submitted article, then the article’s author is held guilty of plagiarism. The author’s argument excusing plagiarism on the grounds of accidental plagiarism is not acceptable at any level.
However still, plagiarism is not always the result of deliberate manipulation. Many errors can make passages plagiarized in a paper. The absence of quotation marks for a quoted passage wrongly attributes the quoted passage to the paper’s author. Similarly, forgetting to add the citation for a quote can lead to plagiarism.
Wrong names of authors or mistakes in the format of the citation also lead to plagiarism charges. These common mistakes can have far-reaching consequences on the career of the writer. Therefore, it is sensible to avoid such mistakes at all levels.
A brief description of unintentional plagiarism
Unintentional or accidental plagiarism occurs when the author of an academic paper/article mistakenly copies content from someone else without attributing it properly in the paper. Misusing citations or improper highlighting of quoted passages in the paper leads to accidental plagiarism.
While writing a paper, a person needs to follow specific guidelines. There are different citation styles and formats, but a person can use only a single format for a paper. The institute usually prescribes the format.
Failing to follow the writing format appropriately leads to errors that can translate into accidental plagiarism. Thus, it is sensible to understand the rules of the writing format properly before formatting the paper. Rigorous revision is also essential to root out minor mistakes that can prevent accidental plagiarism.
The best method of detecting accidental plagiarism
Checking the paper manually for mistakes is a good practice. However, successfully removal of mistakes through manual scanning is not always possible. Paper writing is a time-consuming process, and manual detection of plagiarism also takes time. It is intelligent to employ a software application for checking the paper for plagiarism.
Numerous free online plagiarism checkers compare the document with numerous online sources to detect plagiarism. All improperly cited passages are highlighted. Copy-paste errors are also highlighted in the scanned document.
Apart from highlighting the plagiarized passages, the plagiarism scanner generates a plagiarism report that details different aspects of plagiarism found in the paper and includes plagiarism percentage. Hence, it is wise to use a time-saving application to scan documents for plagiarism.
Ways to avoid unintentional plagiarism
Accidental plagiarism frequently occurs in a paper or article. Carelessness is a significant factor that leads to accidental plagiarism. The writer of any article or dissertation has to ensure that the document is entirely plagiarism-free. Following a few simple steps can help a person in avoiding accidental plagiarism. These steps are there below:
Include quotation marks: Quotation marks help to separate excerpts from the rest of the paper. Quotation marks are generally used for short excerpts because lengthy passages are indented in the paper if a writer forgets to insert the quotation signs before. Moreover, after the excerpt fails to separate the excerpt from the preceding and succeeding lines, the simple mistakes of adding quotation marks can lead to plagiarism as the quoted passage lines become part of the author’s writing absence of the quotation marks.
Properly cite articles: Citation style prescribed by the institute is followed while completing the notes and works cited section of the paper. All citation styles are not the same. There are distinct differences between the citation methods for each style as the writer care has to be taken to avoid citing a source in the wrong way or a different style.
Conduct thorough plagiarism checking: Scan the document with a plagiarism checker to note errors made in the paper. A plagiarism checker compares the uploaded document with all the online sources to create the plagiarism report. With the plagiarism report’s help, it became easy to identify and fix mistakes that can otherwise become accidental plagiarism instances.
The anti-plagiarism software quickly separates original content from copied content. With an online plagiarism checker, plagiarism detection is possible. Thus, these checkers help a writer develop unique content that will uplift the reputation of the writer. Hence, to detect someone else’s work in the content, it is sensible to scan the document with a plagiarism checker.
