Writing a research paper involves plenty of issues and stress. After all, you must pick a topic, write down your own ideas, and avoid any plagiarized content. However, you can run into many types of plagiarism as you cite sources, so you’ll need to learn how to fix plagiarism to avoid it in your academic paper.

Learning how to correct plagiarism and remove it from your writing is vital to prevent any problems that could appear in a TurnItIn search. As you understand plagiarism and how to prevent it, you’ll pass a plagiarism check and get a good grade while displaying your own work.

What Is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism refers to copying, stealing, or using someone else’s words without citing the source material. You’ll need to understand what type of plagiarism you could run into to form original content.

  • Direct plagiarism
  • Accidental plagiarism
  • Self-plagiarism
  • Patchwork plagiarism
  • Mosaic plagiarism

Direct plagiarism is the most common version since you simply copy and paste content from web pages. Instead, focus on your own ideas while writing so you don’t face the problem in the first place.

When learning how to get rid of plagiarism, you may find that it can sometimes happen by accident. Accidental plagiarism means you did your own work, but you just happened to phrase it the same as someone else. You must still check for this and remove the plagiarized content to avoid accusations.

Some people question why using your own words counts as plagiarism. Self-plagiarism means you copy your previous words and don’t reference the source. You should always reference any source you use in your assignment.

Patchwork plagiarism involves taking work from multiple sources and pasting them together. People take this approach to avoid plagiarism checkers since they think the checker won’t notice if they take a few words from different sources.

Mosaic plagiarism takes a similar approach to patchwork. They may directly quote work without quotations but swap words with synonyms. For example, instead of saying “stay” like the source, they may change it to “remain.”

Each of these plagiarism types can lead to your work popping up as stolen in different checkers. Therefore, make sure you never plagiarize since it has severe consequences no matter what you try. Luckily, you have tools available to help you fix plagiarism.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Now that you understand what it involves, you’ll want to learn how to fix plagiarism to make your paper plagiarism-free. As you utilize free tools and plagiarism solutions, you’ll avoid problems while improving the overall quality of your paper. Make sure to apply all of them to keep it safe.

Paraphrase, Summarize, and Quote

When learning how to remove plagiarism, you can start by using three major points to create original content. First, you should paraphrase, summarize, and quote when possible.

Sometimes, you’ll have to paraphrase information into your own words. Doing so means taking the original content and letting people know the key information you want to share. Then, you phrase it in your own words while also mentioning the source.

If you decide to paraphrase, use a paraphrasing tool to create original content. 

Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing, except it involves the entire work. You discuss the main points, focus on rewording, and use synonyms to put them into your own words. If you summarize, cite the source and use a plagiarism checker.

You’ll have to copy and paste the content into your work if you want to quote the source. However, instead of claiming it as your own, you add quotation marks around the copied portion and cite the source. Some assignments may have you use in-text citations.

Always use quotation marks when you add quotes so your lecturer immediately knows you didn’t steal them. Doing so indicates that you don’t claim the words as your own.

Whenever you want to fix any plagiarism issues, start with these ideas. They’ll help you get started before you dive into other approaches.

Utilize Proper Citations

You must always credit the source and author whenever you use their information in your writing. Not only does it help you avoid plagiarism, but it also allows people to check the original source if they want more information.

The authors put in tons of effort while creating these articles, so ensure you give them credit. You can also face expulsion if you plagiarize material, so never fall into that trap. Such plagiarism can even lead to legal problems if you do it in your career.

You apply different citation styles based on what your professor requires you to do. For example, MLA, APA, and Chicago are different citation types, so you’ll have to follow different rules depending on the style you use.

You can even utilize text citations to provide information about sources you quote or reference. Make sure you take some time to learn the different styles, so you don’t get confused or run into problems.

Use a Plagiarism Checker

Some writers will perform a plagiarism check whenever they want to avoid issues. You can do so by identifying a plagiarism detector and using it, but what benefits can you expect from such a tool?

  • Receive a plagiarism report
  • Highlight any plagiarism detected
  • Give you the source material

First, these checkers will provide you with a report. The report lets you know what percentage of your work appeared as plagiarized so that you can look into it. Doing so will help you stay below a percentage depending on your professor’s requirements.

A checker will also highlight the text that the plagiarism fixer detected as stolen. You can then look at your paper, find the text, and adjust it. Doing so will help you fix plagiarism issues with your paper.

The checker will also add links to the source. You can see the highlighted section and click on it to get the link. Doing so can help you find more sources to utilize while allowing you to cite the citation if you want to keep the information in your paper.

Conclusion

Make sure you learn how to fix plagiarism so that you can always remove it before you submit your assignment. Doing so will require you to take advantage of a plagiarism report or other free tools. Make sure you utilize the tips provided earlier to minimize plagiarized content.

If you want an excellent online plagiarism checker, you can go with QueText. Its DeepSearch Technology offers excellent tools while making it simple to use. It can even create citations, so use it along with the plagiarism checker to improve your writing.