How to avoid plagiarism while writing

Plagiarism is the new buzz word in 21st century, which came as a byproduct of growing ubiquity of internet. Information age brought a new dawn in the world where transfer of knowledge has become a cakewalk. But coin always has two faces and similarly information age not only brought the world closer in the form of sharing of resources but also led to change in dynamics and the way people take these reference materials. Boon and bane go hand in hand & plagiarism came as a bane for the same.

Plagiarism refers to copying of another person`s ideas, words or work and pretending that they are your own. Indeed it isn`t wrong to say that in today`s world nothing is your own, with such vast information channels available your idea may resemble that of someone else`s as well. The true problem occurs in determination of what actually can be brought under the ambit of plagiarism. So effectively all plagiarism checkers review ought to be specific in terms of clarity, matter, ideas, language and an analysis needs to ensure what should be permitted and what ought to be omitted.

Reviewer needs to set parameters and give specific importance to each parameter and review needs to effectively showcase on what basis does particular thing comes under plagiarism and to what extent. In case, there is a match of entire text, it is a foregone conclusion that the matter has been copied directly from some source and indeed it is the highest level of plagiarism.

There are chances that someone may copy the matter in their own language. In such cases, plagiarism reviewer ought to carry out a thorough review and understand the main points of the matter. In case all points are seen matching and there is only a slight change in language, this again is a case of plagiarism.

Huge amount of ideas flow through every individual`s neurons. With right to free speech in space, and internet becoming a sure shot partner in realizing this right, dynamism of information sharing has changed and internet has become a space where almost everything and every idea is available. If someone’s idea has a common foundation of someone else’s idea, it cannot be designated as plagiarism. Research work or thesis, in case, being submitted by your own name would definitely be termed as copied.

Also, toleration limit has to be defined. Reviewer ought to understand as things are in common; a certain toleration limit needs to be defined. Even if the work is totally unique i.e. undertaken by you, still a part of it would definitely fetch some citing over internet. Also, the place from where the material is copied is of importance. If it is something from public domain that is free for public viewing, the same should be assigned lower priority, whereas in case something is copied from a source which is a part of some literary work of an individual, the same needs to be viewed with more suspicion.

Although the onus in on the owner to ensure what work needs to be placed on the virtual medium and what not as in today`s world whatever is on internet has unknowingly become public property. Also, in case of research oriented issues, the work should be properly secured in order to prevent it from landing in wrong hands. Still, reviewer`s task has become one of the most important tasks of today. Plagiarism leads to stealing of some part of material that may be result of someone`s years of research. Other way around, with growing spread of matter, reviewer needs to adequately define what is plagiarism and what is the tolerance limit for same.