Plagiarism is never appreciated, whether it is done intentionally or accidentally. Intentional plagiarism is something which happens when a matter is copied from the web or purchased directly and knowingly from pre-written and published academic research papers. Anyways, this is the most sordid forms of plagiarism and is highly censured for paper rejection. On the other mode, accidental plagiarism is caused unknowingly when writer copies the content, but either fails to grant credit to the source or forgets to convert the content into their own expressive ideas and words. Thus, accidental plagiarism is anyways an admission of guilt and can be rectified. Hence, it becomes a stipulation to check an accidental plagiarism and evade its further ailing effects. Following are some points to avoid an accidental plagiarism –
• Addition of reference – Credit should never be missed in any case of quoting others viewpoints in your paper. If you are mentioning others words in your own, taking direct quotations, adding graphs, tables or diagrams in your write-up or writing summaries you should never forget to add reference in your paper.
• Mark up what you have read – Adding direct quotes frequently and missing your own ideas, thoughts and knowledge gained through what you have read in your entire researching period is not at all an intellect act. Hence, you should add your own analysis, interpretation and conclusion after reading, researching and copying others ideas. This will elucidate your concept about research. Also, you should avoid superfluous quotes while writing as they don’t have any relevance to the topic or the content of your research.
• Team work – Sometimes you may expect a joint project on which a collective discussion is required, but every individual is supposed to submit a project on their own and in their own words. Although your project requires uniqueness, you should never forget to concede the ideas of your fellow researchers.
However, accidental plagiarism can be evaded if you remain alert and follow aforesaid points while writing your academic paper.