How to Write an Article, Paper, and Essay Without Plagiarizing?

Writing is a challenging field to master. Undoubtedly, it requires expressing the ideas in an engaging and grammatically correct manner. But even if you fully understand how to write such content, you will still have to cope with the threat of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a nightmare for everyone who writes some textual content. This problem has been stuck with textual content creators from the very beginning. In the past, it resulted in severe consequences, like getting an ‘F’ grade in the subject, failing the semester, expulsion from institutions, etc. Therefore, everyone tries their best to write content without plagiarism. But if you are still not good at writing, this blog is for you.

In this guide, we’ll spill the beans about how to write an article, paper, or essay without becoming a victim of plagiarism. We’ll discuss various tried and tested tips to help you prevent this form of academic misconduct. So, let’s begin straight away.

Clarify Your Understanding About Plagiarism

How can you avoid something if you are not sure what it is? Therefore, before starting to write something, ensure you clearly understand everything there is to know about plagiarism. In simple terms, plagiarism occurs when one or all of the below-specified conditions satisfy:

• You use someone else’s text or wording as it is without giving them the due credit.
• You alter the wording and sentence structuring of someone else’s information without properly acknowledging the original source.
• You do not use the proper styles to cite the references.
• You forget to cite the source of the included data.

This can happen both accidentally or intentionally. However, regardless of how it occurs, its consequences are the same and severe, so everyone prioritizes being vigilant about it.

Conduct Thorough Research on Your Topic

Once you’ve fully clarified your understanding of plagiarism, it is time to begin the writing phase. Whether it’s an article, essay, or research paper, the key to plagiarism-free content lies in an extensive research phase. So, conduct detailed research on your topic before starting to write, which means you shouldn’t limit your content’s data collection to online resources only. Instead, you should also focus on other resources, like books, thesis, research papers, etc.

However, extensive research is only possible if you start working early on your topic. This way, you will not have the fear of a nearing deadline. And eventually, you’ll be able to delve deeper into your topic and find material that others may not have covered.

Remember to Keep Track of the Included Information’s Sources

A thorough research phase undoubtedly involves exploring numerous resources, which is why it paves the way for original and unique content. However, while doing so, people often lose track of their sources. This problem may seem minor to beginners, but it is among the significant causes of plagiarism.

So, whenever you find something relevant from a source, you should include its reference in a separate list instead of just highlighting it. By following this practice, you will always keep track of your sources, regardless of how lengthy your research phase is.

Use Your Voice to Explain the Researched Data

We humans differentiate from one another due to our distinct observation skills. Therefore, once you’ve got all the data you want to cover in your topic, use your writing style and tone to elaborate. In addition to an extensive research phase, this strategy is the best way to craft something unique and original.

However, keeping the sources aside while writing your content is crucial. Otherwise, you’ll unintentionally duplicate the information (wording and sentence structuring), leading to plagiarism.

Employ Paraphrasing and Quoting Where Necessary

While writing an article, paper, or essay, you may have to use some information from existing sources. If that’s the case, you can’t just include that piece of information randomly. Instead, you should take assistance from paraphrasing or quoting.

You can use a paraphrasing tool to rephrase a particular piece of information using your own words. For instance, you can get assistance from combining synonym replacement and sentence restructuring to paraphrase the text effectively. However, the paraphrased content must look different from the original version while conveying the same meaning.

Quoting, however, comes in handy when the paraphrased text fails to convey the same intent as the source. So, if this scenario paints your use case, you can enclose your desired information in double quotes (“ ”) without changing anything.

Cite Your References Properly

Both paraphrasing and quoting will help you eliminate the threat of plagiarism only if you properly cite the reference of the included information. So, whether you paraphrase or use double quotes to include a text chunk from an existing source, it is essential to correctly specify its in-text citation and complete reference at the end of the document. For that reason, you can use our cit. Here is an example that perfectly represents the inclusion of in-text citation and complete reference with both paraphrasing and quoting:

In-Text Citation for Paraphrasing

According to Smith (2020), effective communication skills are essential for successful teamwork.

In-Text Citation for Quoting

“Effective communication skills are essential for successful teamwork” (Smith, 2020, p. 15).

Complete Reference Example for Paraphrasing and Quoting

Smith, J. (2020). Effective Communication in Teams. New York, NY: Academic Press.

Run Your Content Through a Plagiarism Checker

Once you have completely written and proofread your article, essay, or research paper, performing one last check is essential. So, execute your text using a sophisticated plagiarism checker. The modern versions of such a tool use deep search and other advanced algorithms to instantly and accurately locate the traces of plagiarism in any textual content piece.

So, before finalizing, use a plagiarism detector to detect whether your work has any unoriginal instances. If such a tool identifies any traces of plagiarism in your text, you should instantly cite their sources and rewrite them. This way, you can be sure about the complete originality status of your content and confidently move forward with your article, paper, or essay.

Also, read more about the best plagiarism checker for teachers and students to check for plagiarism in a thesis, research paper, essay, etc.

Summing Up

Plagiarism is and has been a central problem for everyone who writes content. But do not worry—you can easily avoid this issue if you know what falls under the criteria of plagiarism and what doesn’t. You also need to conduct detailed research on the topic because doing so will shift your focus more on your data. Similarly, you can use paraphrasing and double-quoting where necessary. But if you do so, do not forget to cite the original reference. Once you’ve finalized everything, remember to never go for submission without running your text through a plagiarism checker.