When it comes to plagiarism, every writer is guilty at some point in their life. This situation can include copying and pasting content from any website onto the main blog without knowing why. The good news is that there are a few easy ways to remove accidental plagiarism from your content.
So, if a writer wants to eradicate the issue of unintentional plagiarism from his content, this blog post will be ideal for him.
From the definition of the base form of plagiarism to accidental plagiarism to the techniques to eradicate accidental plagiarism, this post will cover everything. Thus, without any further ado, let’s delve into this discussion.
What is Plagiarism and How Does Accidental Plagiarism Differ from the Base Type of Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the act of stealing someone’s content without crediting him. It comes in many forms and one of the most common forms of plagiarism is accidental plagiarism.
Accidental plagiarism is a form of plagiarism that occurs when a writer uses some information from an already published paper but forgets to add the source of that paper. It differs from the base form of plagiarism because accidental plagiarism is unintentional, whereas the base form of plagiarism could be intentional or unintentional.
Anyways, plagiarism, either intentional or unintentional, has the same consequences. So, writers should try to avoid plagiarism at any cost.
Easy Ways to Remove the Accidental Plagiarism from Your Content:
1. Use the Help of Paraphrasing:
Paraphrasing is a proven technique to remove any form of plagiarism from the content. It involves changing the wording of content without modifying its actual meaning.
Writers can correctly paraphrase a piece of content by:
- Reading the original version thoroughly (before trying to paraphrase it)
- Modifying the voice of sentences (from active to passive or passive to active)
- Using synonyms and changing the placement of words
After paraphrasing, writers should add the reference to the original information. Adding the references is a precautionary step since paraphrasing pretty much removes plagiarism on its own.
2. Include Double Quotes:
Sometimes, paraphrasing prevents plagiarism, but it changes the meaning of the content. In such a case, writers can use double quotes.
A piece of content enclosed in double quotes indicates to readers and search engines that the writer has taken this information elsewhere. So, writers can use double quotes to include some information from somewhere else without changing it. But they will have to enclose the included information in the double quotes.
Like paraphrasing, mentioning the source after using double quotes is also necessary. Otherwise, the information enclosed in double quotes will fall under plagiarism.
3. Keep Track Of The Sources Of Included Information:
As the definition of accidental plagiarism explains, it occurs when a writer forgets to mention the source of paraphrased or double-quoted information. So, the most straightforward way to prevent unintentional plagiarism is to keep track of the sources while including information in the content.
Thus, when a writer mentions all the sources, he won’t fall prey to any type of plagiarism.
4. Always use Original Media:
Most newbie writers are unaware of the situation that plagiarism can also occur by using media from published materials. Thus, when they use such media types in their content, they fall prey to accidental plagiarism.
A simple solution to this issue is to use original media. But original media is not available all the time. In such a situation, writers can use royalty-free media or media that require no attribution.
This way, writers won’t have to fall into the complexities of mentioning the sources of included media, which is another handy technique to remove unintentional or accidental plagiarism from the content.
5. Check the Plagiarism Of The Content Before Finalizing it:
The last technique in the easy ways to remove accidental plagiarism from your content guide is to look for traces of plagiarism in the written content. Writers can do that by passing the content through an online plagiarism checker.
A plagiarism checker is a tool that finds traces of plagiarism in uploaded content by comparing it against published materials with the help of a deep-searching technique. Thus, when a plagiarism detector has found any traces of plagiarism, it will provide the users with the percentage of unique and original content. This way, users can quickly determine whether a piece of content contains any plagiarism or not.
Some plagiarism-checking tools also come with built-in abilities to remove plagiarism. So, writers can rely on those abilities to remove traces of accidental plagiarism from their content.
Wrapping Up – the Bottom Line:
Accidental plagiarism is a moderate form of plagiarism, mainly occurring when a writer forgets to add the source of included information or uses a media without properly crediting the original owner. Such a type of plagiarism is a prevalent issue among blog writers and writers of other industries. So, most writers do not even care about accidental plagiarism. But unintentional plagiarism has the same consequences as intentional plagiarism.
Thus, if a writer wants to avoid those consequences, he should check his written content for accidental plagiarism. But before checking accidental plagiarism, he should know what accidental plagiarism is because that is the only way to effectively eradicate unintentional plagiarism in content. And that’s where this guide will prove helpful.
Commonly Asked Questions (FAQs):
1. How do you fix unintentional plagiarism?
To fix unintentional plagiarism, writers should:
- Keep track of the sources of included information.
- Always use original media (images, videos, infographics, and GIFs) in their documents.
- Check the plagiarism of the written content before finalizing it.
- Use the help of paraphrasing. But if paraphrasing is unavailable, writers should prefer using double quotes.
For more information, use the techniques discussed in the above blog post because unintentional plagiarism is another form of accidental plagiarism.
2. What are the seven ways you can prevent plagiarism?
The (seven) 7 ways to avoid plagiarism while writing any type of content are:
- Always use original information.
- Cite the sources of included information.
- Include the double quotes.
- Use paraphrasing techniques or paraphrasing tools.
- Check the plagiarism of the written content before finalizing it.
- Keep track of the sources of included information.
- Always use original media (images, videos, infographics, and GIFs) in your document.
3. What is the easiest way to remove plagiarism?
Although the word plagiarism sounds frightening, removing it is not scary at all. So, the easiest way to eliminate plagiarism from content is paraphrasing.
Candidates can use the help of plagiarism checkers to identify the plagiarized portions of the content. Then, they can paraphrase the plagiarized pieces and cite the copied information sources for removing plagiarism from their content.