Thanks to the Internet, getting hold of information whilst writing or correcting your bachelor’s thesis is easier than ever. Whilst this makes research umpteen amounts easier, with instant information at our fingertips, plagiarism is becoming a considerable problem. When you’re correcting a master’s thesis or proofreading an article, you only need to take a few simple steps to do a plagiarism check and ensure all of your work is your own.
So, why should I do a plagiarism check?
You don’t even have to intend to use someone else’s work as your own, you could merely forget to properly cite the information used. Even if you think all of your work is your very own, checking for plagiarism, as well as the usual proofreading, before you hand in your thesis could save you from any nasty surprises.
How can I do a plagiarism check?
There are several tools online you can use to check for plagiarised excerpts. When you’re doing any English editing, simply copy and paste your work into a plagiarism checker or download a plagiarism checker software and it will point out any excerpts which need revising.
Grammarly’s Plagiarism Checker kills two birds with one stone – it does the hard work for you, pointing out any English grammar issues and checking for plagiarism at the same time.
If you want to further ensure your work doesn’t contain any plagiarised excerpts, you could let topcorrect proof read and edit your thesis, so the chance of plagiarism cropping up is greatly reduced.
There are in addition many free plagiarism checker software available to download online. It’s all a matter of finding the software or application which works best for you.
How can I avoid plagiarism?
No plagiarism checker software is perfect but there are a techniques to ensure you avoid plagiarising any work. Paraphrasing is one of the best ways to avoid plagiarism. Using your own words to explain any ideas or points put forward will ensure you won’t fall foul of plagiarising work. To further ensure you don’t copy any paraphrased concept or idea, cite the source, giving the author’s name, name and year of publication.
If you quote more than two words of anyone’s or even your very own work, you’ll need to put the citation in quotation marks as well as giving the page number in addition to the same information given when you’ve previously cited someone’s work.
It’s surprising how easy it is to fall foul of plagiarism. However, it’s a simple issue to resolve when you do a plagiarism check. Put aside time to properly reference or put into your own words the ideas and concepts put forward in your thesis and you can rest easy knowing your work, which you’ve poured blood, sweat and tears into, is all your own.