How to Avoid Plagiarism | Tips on Citing Sources
Plagiarism means using someone else’s words or ideas without properly crediting the original author. Sometimes plagiarism involves deliberately stealing someone’s work, but more often it happens accidentally, through carelessness or forgetfulness.
When you write an academic paper, you build upon the work of others and use various credible sources for information and evidence. To avoid plagiarism, you need to correctly incorporate these sources into your text.
Plagiarism can become an issue at various stages of the writing process. You can avoid plagiarism by:
- Keeping track of the sources you consult in your research
- Paraphrasing or quoting from your sources (and adding your own ideas)
- Crediting the original author in an in-text citation and in your reference list
- Using a plagiarism checker before you submit
Even accidental plagiarism can have serious consequences, so take care with how you integrate sources into your writing.
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