Avoiding Plagiarism in Academic Essays
According to the US Constitution, anyone has the right to express himself or herself in a free way, a right referred to as a "freedom of speech." How the product of example custom essay writing is used really depends not on the author, but on the person using it.
Whereas writing is not criminal or unfair in anyway, cheating is something that should be questioned. As most people well know, cheating in school has always been a way of life for some students who need to survive through their final exams. Not everyone is that "lazy," of course, because most students have been doing their own homework. Therefore, the question is:
If a student gets help in writing his or her essay, should that be considered fair work or plagiarism?
This is a complex question, and the answer is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. It would be silly to believe that the student's work is not plagiarized ONLY because s/he performed 100% of the work. The reason for that is simple - today, it is not possible to separate "allowed" from "not allowed" materials that are used during the process of doing homework. These days, a student who needs to research a subject has a wide range of choices to do so: the library, the Internet, or... his/her peers. If a student reads a book in a library and learns some important facts without actually remembering which particular book s/he took the necessary information from, and then commits the facts to an essay - would that be considered a plagiarism? From a formal viewpoint - it should be treated as a "crime." In reality, however, such scenario would probably never happen because otherwise education would be impossible. Similarly, if a student talks about a possible solution to the math problem with his/her student peer during a school break, would that still be considered "too much assistance" in the professor's eyes? Again, it's doubtful.
So, why are those students who seek help from custom writing or editing services oftentimes regarded as those who "commit plagiarism?" Maybe, it is so because the teachers are inclined to think that paid help should be treated as a worse "crime" than a non-profit assistance. But do the teachers teach for free? Or maybe, this crime idea comes from a conviction that paying for writing help is for students a way to receive a custom paper without any time or effort contribution. Actually, neither argument seems to make much sense as most students who "help" one another don't really do it for free; instead, they do barter trade of their knowledge and skills. As for "no contribution," it's quite the opposite since the money paid for the service must have been worked for. Moreover, purchasing a writing service does not mean that the student doing so is unable to compose a comparable essay on his/her own.
Since purchasing of writing/editing services is an ambiguous concept and could be argued either way, it is reasonable to conclude that the concept is based simply on the economic theory of opportunity cost. Students paying for custom essay writing services assess that their cost to make money to pay is lesser than their cost to do the writing on their own. Thus, it is education at work.
Ways to avoid Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty
Introduction
Plagiarism refers to copying materials either directly from books, internet sources, journals and professor’s notes among others or presenting another person’s work without citing the source of the work. Paraphrasing is writing an article with your own words after reading many ideas .It might also be information that is paraphrased although strongly looks like the original work. Plagiarism does not refer to vocabulary alone but can also refer to repetition of images, graphs, tables, and ideas. Paraphrasing refers to putting ideas borrowed from a work in one’s own words. Both primary and secondary sources should be well shown both in the text and at the end of the paper. The reasons why one should always cite his/her work is to show that the ideas are from a meaningful source, also the reader is in a position to read further about the research if he/she wishes. When you do the citation of your sources, no one can claim that the information is copied or stolen from someone else ideas.
How to Avoid Plagiarism
What makes the work to be seen as other people’s work is quoting almost every word directly from the source, paraphrasing all ideas from the source, borrowing all ideas from another source and also taking all the materials from the internet. For a student to avoid plagiarism he/she should read and understand the topic carefully and then write it in his own words. The student should maintain the meaning of the passage and should also cite a source for the paraphrase though not directly quoted from the source. Students should therefore be able to create their own ideas from reading materials of other people and hence coming up with their own ideas. The different ways to avoid plagiarism include paraphrasing, citation and quoting of an author. Citation means that the idea is from another source but it is not your own idea. When citing, students should use the citation formats. When work is not cited it is said to contain plagiarism as it does not have the reference page, author name and also date the work was published. The reference page is always added in every essay that is written. The wok cited in the paper is in the reference page to show that the ideas are from different sources and authors. The author name, publication date, city of publication and the publishers are included in the reference page. An author should use the exact words as used by another author when quoting. The words should be limited to 40 words which are about 5% of the whole essay. The writer must avoid using words of another person’s idea. Quotations marks should be used in direct quotations to show that the work is from another person. Name of the author should also be cited in the text and in the reference page and when completing the essay. These quotations should be in question marks and also cited especially when the material is from online material.
Conclusion
Plagiarism refers to the wrongful use of other peoples’ work or ideas as if they are your own. Plagiarism is a criminal offence and student may be suspended or even expelled for submitting plagiarized work. A student may avoid plagiarism through paraphrasing and citing the work from where he gets his ideas. In conclusion, students should know the many ways to prevent plagiarism. They should embrace the many ways which include paraphrasing, quotations and also citations. No one can claim the information when work is well paraphrased..Students must be familiar with the different types of citations such as MLA, APA, HAVARD and Chicago.