Whether you are writing a research paper or looking to publish a blog post, you have to write something apart from what’s already available.
Gathering all the information in your research content may not be easy. It is not that simple to take the data from a source to put in your web content.
Doing so may get you accused of plagiarizing content which is a severe accusation for writers and authors. Most of the time, people avoid taking plagiarism seriously. Thus, they have to bear the consequences of it.
Why is it essential to avoid plagiarism?
Like stealing materialistic things, stealing content is also a theft. It is unethical to take someone else’s content and claim it to be your original copy.
Because if you’re copying someone’s content, you are trying to benefit yourself from that information to earn credibility online.
Plagiarism would raise a question mark on a writer’s capabilities and ruin their reputation for stealing someone else’s content. In some cases, writers can get sued for duplicating content that is copyright protected.
In order to avoid this hideous activity, we have to focus on a few factors to write unique content. This article will share some practical tips that can help you avoid plagiarism in your written content. These tips will help you maintain uniqueness in any written content.
1. Begin search earlier
Whenever you decide to begin writing about content, do not waste any time. Every assignment has a deadline, and every trending blog has a specific time when people are hyped up about it. In any case, you define a time limit for your work.
Therefore, it is recommended to begin your search earlier to get more time to gather credible data. We miss out on many necessary details if we rush while performing research.
It is not ideal for researching or writing something under time limit pressure as it may lack value and quality. Moreover, making mistakes increases if we don’t have enough time to proofread our content.
2. State your thoughts
While performing research, you’ll come across many platforms that include information you want to present in your written content.
But instead of copying it directly, you should gather similar information from different resources to create an idea of your own.
You can always look for an idea to feature in your written content, but putting in efforts to contribute something unique to it makes the actual difference.
You can present something innovative derived from an idea already present on an online forum. This issue is commonly faced when you write assignments on the same topic, leading you to commit self-plagiarism.
3. Add citations and quotations in your writing
While presenting an idea that’s not your own, you can easily get accused of plagiarism. You can mention a source by citing your written content to tackle this problem. In-text citations give complete information on the source’s name, author, and publication date.
Similarly, if you’re fond of someone else’s words that effectively impact a reader’s mind, you can quote that phrase or sentence.
Quotation marks “featured like this” on each section of your sentence donates that these lines are not your own. It is recommended to cite a direct quote so that readers can know the source of that phrase or sentence.
4. Paraphrase your content
Paraphrasing is the most effective technique to remove plagiarism from the written content. It’s a method to paraphrase the content from the source by switching the synonyms, sentence voice, and adjectives.
Some people confuse paraphrasing with duplicating the content. However, it’s a technique that’s used to avoid duplication.
The goal of paraphrasing a sentence is to retain the original meaning presented in the passage but your own words.
Simply switching synonyms and sentences to make a paragraph is not an effective technique. Besides retaining the actual meaning, the paraphrased content should also be easy to read.
5. Check your previous work
When you’re writing about something over time, you must avoid repeatedly using the same words or phrases in your content. Quite often, writers become victims of self-plagiarism when they write content on the same topics.
The best practice is to keep an eye on your previously written content. Look for the sources and bookmarks you have gone through in the past while writing the content. You can also cite your published work by adding a citation reference.
It is best to avoid researching from the same source again to extract any information. If you’re writing about a topic that shares the same sense and idea as your previous work, then try to change the subheadings, which will ultimately change the content in the body of your article.
6. Follow a different format
The writing style and formatting outline the whole look of the content. It depends on whether you follow a more descriptive or straightforward approach.
All these elements relate to self-plagiarism aspects. But to give your content a unique look, you can change the formatting style of content.
For example, you can explain guidelines in bullet points if you have previously mentioned them in the form of paragraphs.
7. Distribute your information
While performing online research, you come across much information that you can integrate into your content. But let’s say you have to write five different articles about the same product or service. There is a big chance of encountering self-plagiarism.
The best method is to avoid putting all the information in one writing. You can gather data about a specific topic and try to elaborate a bit on each statement in a specified word count. In this way, you extract more content by utilizing less information.
Conclusion
Some writers believe that it’s best to check and clear plagiarism once the written content is completed. However, this practice can make things challenging, and it can ruin the overall structure of the content.
By following some simple techniques, one can avoid plagiarism while writing the content. It’s a healthy practice, and it helps improve writing skills.