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How To Avoid Plagiarism: Don’t Devastate Your Writing Career

Stephen Covey, the motivational guru who wrote “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” says, “Confidence is the highest form of human motivation.”

As writers, confidence is your greatest asset. Your reputation is merely a representation of our trust and authority.

Unfortunately, there is no easier way to betray that trust than to commit plagiarism.

While most people think avoiding plagiarism is simple, it is much more subtle. Sometimes, plagiarism arises accidentally, for example through incorrect citations or forgetting to add a proper link.

Furthermore, plagiarism is not only a concern of academia but can also be a major problem for any type of writing, including blog writing, journalism, sales copy, and even technical or medical writing from authors who originated an idea.

This guide will provide actionable strategies for avoiding plagiarism and identifying what constitutes actual plagiarism.

What is plagiarism and when is it not plagiarism?

Merriam-Webster provides a more formal file Definition of. We can define plagiarism as the deliberate act of copying one’s ideas and passing them off as your own.

However, it is important to distinguish between what constitutes plagiarism and what does not.

Borrowing or even illustrating one’s ideas does not necessarily imply plagiarism if the writing is original or if they cite its source.

For example, if I wrote a short blog about the basics of SEO in my own words, I wouldn’t have to give credit or cite who was the first person to coin the term SEO is to avoid plagiarism.

In any field, sharing ideas is essential to developing her knowledge base.

For example, we can see Schopenhauer’s influence on Nietzsche’s early ideas without the latter necessarily having to cite the former.

In addition, anything considered public knowledge would not be plagiarism. If you say that Joe Biden is the President of the United States, you don’t need to cite a source.

Furthermore, mentioning terms, such as “crossing the Rubicon,” does not require one to source Caeser.

However, almost verbatim written content of what someone else has written without proper citation constitutes plagiarism. So if someone were to copy and paste that last sentence into a blog, it would be deliberate plagiarism.

In addition, even if the letter’s wording has been changed, but its ideas and message are almost verbatim as someone else wrote it, this may amount to plagiarism.

Why plagiarism is bad

We hardly need to say that “plagiarism is bad” is a common truism in our society that requires no further explanation.

However, there are both practical and ethical reasons for plagiarism to be strengthened:

  • It is a form of intellectual theft.
  • It damages the integrity and reputation of the writer.
  • Ignoring plagiarism sets a bad precedent for all arts and sciences.
  • Plagiarism impairs your writing skills and makes you a lazy writer.
  • You don’t feel good when it happens to you.

However, I do not believe that the majority of plagiarisms arise from some malicious act but rather from ignorance or haste.

Common sources of plagiarism

Plagiarism can be easily prevented with modern tools and advance planning. For example, many academic students plagiarize because they procrastinate on assignments or don’t know how to properly cite things.

Some common sources of plagiarism include:

  • intentional theft
  • incorrect quotes.
  • Research is poorly paraphrased.
  • Use a broken hyperlink to refer to something.
  • Not understanding that something is not of common knowledge.
  • Reusing your previous work without properly realizing or citing it.

To help you avoid plagiarism, I’ve outlined seven practical tips to adopt in your writing process to ensure your writing stays clean.

1. Take notes when citing other sources

If you’re like me, you probably open a dozen or so tabs to research a topic before typing any words.

In many cases, plagiarism can result from simply forgetting to cite or write something you may have published in a draft without realizing it.

This is why it is important to properly track all the sources you cite from, especially if you use any direct quotes in your article or need to cite a statistic or research point.

Keep track of things you get by adding comments, highlighting, or hyperlinking to any material you get from other people.

When in doubt, if you’re not sure something requires a source, add a hyperlink or quote to be on the safe side.

From an SEO perspective, linking to trusted third-party sites is a best practice, regardless.

2. Add quotes or links in the text

Next, we need to know how to cite the sources you include in your document.

Currently, a lot of academia requires APA citations, which means you’ll need to add a footer after any citation from your source or an original citation, such as (Lieback, 2023).

For fields outside of academia, inserting a hyperlink over a piece of anchor text linked to the source citation can be handy.

For example, if you quote Zeus As the world’s largest dog, according to CNN, I could have used “Zeus” or “CNN” or “world’s largest dog” as the body text for the source link.

Finally, adding citations and mentioning the name of the author or source can be an appropriate form of citation in more informal fields outside of academia.

For example, citing Steve Jobs as “stay hungry, stay foolish” is appropriate without linking or creating a formal citation.

3. Paraphrase the information with original ideas

If you’re not copying someone’s ideas verbatim, you likely won’t need their source material, especially for informal writing.

Ideally, I encourage my writers to try to reframe ideas while presenting them in a new light. Use the insights you gathered from your research to support your own ideas and conclusions, which should be drawn independently once all the facts are gathered.

Not only does this ensure that your writing is clean, but it also makes you more critically minded.

One has to ask oneself, what is the point of writing about someone else’s thoughts if you are not going to offer a fresh perspective?

Use the information you are paraphrasing as information, not gospel, to ensure that you always avoid plagiarism.

4. Proofreading and careful editing

The most straightforward way to avoid plagiarism is to catch it before the paper is published. Taking the time to edit your article and citations will ensure that your article stays clean and does not run the risk of any ethical violations.

Again, check if the writing is original and that the writer drew their conclusions independently. This will make you a better editor, too.

5. Use a plagiarism checker like a grammarian

Plagiarism tools are incredibly useful in spotting errors that humans can’t catch.

In the example below, I copied and pasted a piece of text from a recent post on the SEJ site, and the tool told me the text was 100% plagiarized and even gave me the link to the source.

Screenshot from Grammarly, January 2023

These tools are great for citing any online research, but may not be effective against things mentioned in books, PDFs, e-books, or anything not available in the online index.

6. Plan ahead

Avoiding procrastination will ensure that you have enough time to review texts and draft outlines accordingly.

This allows you to keep track of all your sources, learn how to cite them correctly, and help you avoid other mistakes.

7. Commitment to presenting original ideas

Finally, this point speaks to the spirit of the reason for writing.

Determined to be an independent writer and thinker, you will never have to worry about plagiarism. Most importantly, you will be more successful because of it.

Avoiding plagiarism isn’t necessarily difficult, but it does take discipline and proper planning.

More resources:

  • 10 advanced search engine optimization skills to boost your career
  • 7 Tips to Make Your Writing Portfolio Discoverable in Google Search
  • Completely optimized content from start to finish


Featured image: GoodStudio/Shutterstock

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