How to Avoid Plagiarism in Your Writing: 5 Tactics That Work

In most cases, plagiarism isn't intentional. You might rely on someone's work in your paper without paraphrasing it well enough. Or, you might simply forget to cite the sources of the evidence you use.

When we help students with their papers at AssignmentHelp, we often get asked: How do you make sure your papers are original? Besides forbidding intentional plagiarism, we also rely on these five methods to prevent our writing from getting mistaken for plagiarism, and so can you!

Keep reading to discover what plagiarism is, why you should pay attention to it, and our five methods for avoiding it.

But What Is Plagiarism, Really?

Let's begin with the plagiarism definition academic writing experts typically use. Plagiarism happens when you use someone else's writing without properly citing it. Contrary to popular belief, plagiarism doesn't have to involve copying a sentence or two verbatim. If you alter a few words or sentence structure but don't cite the source, that's still plagiarism.

What's more, these two situations are far from the only ones that can be considered plagiarism. If you reuse content from your other papers without citing them, it'll get flagged as plagiarism, too. That's because tools like Turnitin add every paper they scan to a database.

Alternatively, if you rely too much on a single source in your paper, it could raise some academic integrity concerns. Yes, even if it's properly cited. After all, your paper should contain your own thoughts, ideas, and contribution to the field.

Why Is Plagiarism Bad? 4 Reasons to Avoid It

You might be tempted to take a shortcut because you feel pressured to keep your GPA high and lack confidence in your skills. But it's simply not worth it. Here's why plagiarizing is a bad idea, and why you should check for accidental plagiarism, too:

• It undermines your academic integrity. Academic integrity policies stipulate that you're supposed to submit original work. Plagiarism, for this reason, is against your school's policies.
• It can lead to hefty penalties. Depending on the case, plagiarism can lead to failing a class, put you on academic probation, or even prompt expulsion. And yes, it's easy to get caught: with modern technology, replacing several words with synonyms doesn't work anymore.
• It sabotages your reputation. If you're caught even once, your teachers or professors will pay closer attention to your submitted papers. It'll also undermine your credibility if you're planning to do any academic research later on.
• It can haunt you for life. Yes, plagiarism accusations come up later in life, costing you your job or promotion. For example, the Harvard University president has to resign in 2024 over plagiarism accusations, among other things.

If you don't have the skills to write and cite your paper properly, it's better to rely on assignment help and get an original draft than to plagiarize. 

How to Avoid Plagiarism in Academic Writing: 5 Methods

If you're considering intentional plagiarism, like copying your peer's paper or taking one off the internet, the best way to avoid it is to just decide not to do it. After all, failing a plagiarism check will lead to consequences that are way worse than if you just turn your assignment in late.

With that out of the way, let's break down the five main strategies for avoiding accidental plagiarism through careful research and thoughtful writing.

1. Be meticulous when taking notes

Here's a common scenario. You're getting ready to start writing your paper. So, you look at the notes you took two days ago. Your eyes land on a very good argument. But for the life of you, you can't remember if you came up with it yourself or saw it somewhere else. Or, you vaguely recall seeing it elsewhere, but you have no idea where it was.

Sounds familiar? Good news: you can avoid this scenario. Here's how to avoid plagiarism in writing by taking detailed notes:

• Label everything. Write ME in parentheses after any thought or idea you came up with yourself. As for notes referring to others' works, add the name and author or paste the link to the source.
• Take time. When you're short on time, you won't even think about writing down where each idea in your outline came from. So, the solution is simple: plan ahead so that you have enough time for thorough note-taking.
• Keep notes separately. You probably don't stick to immaculate formatting in your notes, and it's fine. However, if you mix the notes with the draft, you might accidentally copy-paste a sentence copied from somewhere else without realizing it.

2. Double-check your citations

Here's another scenario. You're well aware that this particular sentence is from someone else's work. You think you've cited it, but it still gets flagged as plagiarism, catching you by surprise.

So, how can you avoid plagiarism in this case? Here's our mini-guide:

• Enclose the quote in quotation marks. If you're quoting someone directly, the punctuation will clearly show these aren't your words. For example: 'In the 1950s, the fears of a nuclear fallout "permeated every medium" (Smith, 2021).'
• Check in with your citation style guide. APA, MLA, Chicago, and other styles all have their specific guidelines for citing paraphrased and direct quotes. Verify you've complied with the requirements for in-text or footnote citations, especially if you refer to several sources in the same sentence.
• Add a reference list. Go back to your citation style guidelines and make sure every entry on the list is properly sorted and formatted.
• Use a revision round to verify citations. Mistakes happen; that's just what being human is. To avoid submitting a paper with a citation mistake, give your draft another read dedicated solely to checking that all citations are in place and are properly formatted.

3. Paraphrase whenever possible

Yes, sometimes, you'll have no choice but to paste a phrase or sentence and enclose it with quotation marks. Perhaps, you're critiquing a specific definition from a specific author. Or, you're analyzing the use of metaphors in a specific literary work.

But paraphrasing still beats direct quotes in the vast majority of cases. So, try to relay someone else's ideas in your own words whenever you can. Here's how to prevent plagiarism with thoughtful paraphrasing:

• Take your time to rewrite it. Zero in on the main idea behind the source material and retell it in your own words. Remember: switching out a couple of words for synonyms or restructuring a sentence doesn't qualify as paraphrasing.
• Add your analysis if appropriate. Use the space after your summary to provide extra context for the cited material or your own opinion on it. Make sure to use signposting and explicitly connect the material to your thesis statement or argument, too.
• Cite your sources. Just because you're retelling another person's thoughts in your own words doesn't mean you don't have to cite the source. So, make sure that all citations are in place, even for paraphrased material.

4. Be careful with reusing your own work

This isn't a common piece of advice among how to avoid plagiarism examples, but that's why it's so important to keep it in mind. Once again, reusing content from assignments you've written for other classes, fully or partially, is plagiarism — unless you cite them, that is.

(Yes, you're technically not stealing from anyone. But you're also not submitting anything original, and that's why self-plagiarism is frowned upon.)

If you want to refer to something you've already written, paraphrase and cite it like you would any other source. Refer only to your original ideas from the previous papers, not your summaries of others' works.

Finally, don't try to tweak an already-submitted-once paper and pass it as a new one for a different class. You might think it'll fly unnoticed if the teacher is different. But in reality, no matter who's grading your paper, they'll run it through the same plagiarism detector. That tool will compare the paper against its database of all submitted assignments.

5. Run an originality check before submission

Finally, you can't know for sure whether your draft is plagiarism-free until you've run it through a checker yourself. So, if you're worried about passing a plagiarism check, find a reliable tool that will help you avoid plagiarism.

If you decide to use the first free plagiarism checker you find online, be warned: it probably won't be as accurate as Turnitin or its equivalent used by your school. Even paid plagiarism checkers don't always check content against academic databases with paid access and may struggle with recognizing direct quotes with citations as non-plagiarism.

On top of that, since different plagiarism checkers use different matching techniques and databases, their results may also vary. That's why it's a good idea to run your paper through several checkers and compare results.

When browsing plagiarism checkers, take into account:

• The scope, size, and diversity of the source database (online sources, academic repositories, etc.)
• The tool's ability to detect both full and partial matches, as well as paraphrased text
• The safety of your data (make sure the text you enter isn't stored or used for AI training, etc.)

In Closing

If avoiding plagiarism seems like a Herculean task to you now, let us reassure you: just like you can get better at math, you can also develop your plagiarism-avoiding skills. Yes, citation guidelines will take some getting used to, and so will other strategies on our list. But eventually, they'll become second nature to you.

To recap, here's how to avoid plagiarism as a student:

1. Always write down which ideas are yours and jot down sources for borrowed ones in your notes.
2. Properly cite both direct quotes and paraphrased material, and double-check citations before submitting the paper.
3. Paraphrase and summarize the ideas of others to minimize the risk of plagiarism.
4. Always cite your previous papers and don't recycle content.
5. Run an originality check before submission.

Even these strategies don't seem to work for you? Consider turning to AssignmentHelp if you're struggling with an assignment. Our experts will make easy work of it!