Tips and Techniques to Prevent Plagiarism

Think you have written an excellent review about some particular place, only to see it on another website with a new byline? Welcome to the world of plagiarism! Today, it has become a major hindrance in various walks of life!

Be it students researching for their test papers, or journalists preparing a 'unique' report, plagiarism has spread like wildfire since 'writers' are on the lookout to opt for an easy way out. It is all about using another author's content or ideas as your own and displaying it as your authentic work.

Self-plagiarism can also be included under this category when original content is sold off to many publications despite the work being copyrighted with a particular company. Thus, it is very difficult to deal with this issue, although there are many ways to detect the same.

Cases of students using 'borrowed content' for their assignments are highly prevalent these days. This is mainly due to easy access to the Internet. Teachers, therefore, need to be aware of techniques that can help prevent plagiarism.

Make it a point to inform students or the people concerned that you are on the lookout for original work. In case of students, you would need to prepare them with certain basic tasks that will help them create original and authentic content.

Explain all about the skills required for taking quick notes and how these can be further used to write original pieces. Help people develop their research skills. Ensure you have shown them the appropriate use of the Internet. Create a bank of samples to help them differentiate between good and bad content.

An easy way to prevent plagiarism at your office or amongst the students would be to cross-question the reports that are presented. Asking questions related to the topic being covered may help you catch the writer off-guard about the content being covered.

Therefore, make it a point to discuss the process so that all areas are covered and writers would not really opt to plagiarize content.

Developing a knack to know about a particular person's style of writing is useful to detect plagiarism. This may seem a tad difficult for professors who have to handle a large number of students, but it sure can keep such acts in check.

Every individual has his/her own way of going about a particular subject. Knowing a person's basic nature or way of dealing with a subject would help you to know an author's basic style of writing. This will surely cause the writer to think twice before plagiarizing.

Ensure the concerned group of people is well aware about the penalties involved. This would surely help you to prevent plagiarism to a great extent. Students need to be warned they can lose a term. In case of employees, they need to be aware that plagiarism can even cost them their job.

There are various ways in which one can detect plagiarism with the help of search engines and sites online. This will help prevent this issue to a large extent. These methods help track plagiarized content, and keep things in check to ensure you have only authentic content in hand.

Ultimately, it also depends upon the writer and the thought process involved. A genuine person would only rely on his/her ability to translate the required information in his/her own unique way.