Draft:Unintentional plagiarism

Unintentional Plagiarism
Unintentional plagiarism is an act of not giving due credit for someone else’s ideas, research, perspective, or words. Even if it was not intentional, it is still plagiarism and certainly not acceptable in any way. There are several websites, software, and services that offer advanced tools and apps that are designed and built to detect plagiarism in academic papers.

Instances
Unintentional plagiarism occurs in several ways and instances, such as:

Failing to cite sources correctly: Some students end up plagiarizing accidentally by failing to cite sources correctly. If you don’t know how to cite sources correctly, then follow the right guidelines, develop citation insights, or ask for help.

Failing to cite paraphrased information: Students often think they need not cite a source if they are not using a direct quote. This is not true. One must understand that using someone else’s ideas and putting their perspectives into your own words does not turn their works into original pieces. You must give the original author their due credit even when you paraphrase.

Incorrect Paraphrasing: The paraphrased content should be significantly distinct from the original text. Merely changing a few words and rearranging the original sentences do not justify the purpose of paraphrasing. Rather, it should convey the author’s facts and perspectives in one’s own style.

Using a web source unintentionally: One must be very cautious while using a web source in their individual works. It could be someone else’s work instead of an original piece. So, students have to be cautious in such cases and verify the website's source and authenticity before using them.

Causes

Unintentional plagiarism could occur due to a lot of factors. However, this form of cheating cannot be entertained, irrespective of the reason. Unintentional plagiarism happens due to reasons such as:


 * Poor Time Management
 * Procrastination
 * Lack of Knowledge
 * Lack of Confidence
 * Mistaken beliefs about plagiarism

In most cases, due to the odds of poor time management, students fail to acquire the right references at the right time. As a result, they tend to rush and end up committing unintentional plagiarism.

Procrastination causes students to push deadlines, set unclear objectives, and look for quick references at the last moment. This could be the number one factor behind students committing unintentional plagiarism in academia.

A lack of knowledge and the right insights leads to uncertainty and unclear ideations. This further leads to confusion and somehow compels students to opt for an easier way to use references, which is by not citing sources accurately and giving authors their due credit.

Also, lacking the confidence to go about the right citation style and adding proper references leads to further fallacies. This is again linked to the context of mistaken beliefs regarding unintentional plagiarism. Many a time, students believe that it is not plagiarism if the source has been paraphrased.

Future of Intentional Plagiarism

With Artificial Intelligence entertaining the realm of academia these days, inappropriate fabrication of research works can be avoided by bringing the right tools into play. Detecting fabrication can be difficult since the work is entirely made up and falsified. So, a regular plagiarism detector might not spot any “plagiarized” content since the text is hypothetically written and not copied.

One can harness the potential of integrated, advanced tools to avoid research fabrication and, precisely, the odds of unintentional plagiarism.

Avoiding Unintentional Plagiarism

While unintentional plagiarism is certainly a parasite that can eat away one’s reputation, it isn’t something that cannot be defeated. It can be curbed in the following ways.


 * Learn how to paraphrase in the right way and according to the right format.
 * Cite references accurately, include quotations where necessary, and develop original ideas.
 * Keep your sources in the correct context, and make accurate notes.
 * Use advanced plagiarism checkers to keep such odds at bay.

See Also

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