How To Avoid Plagiarism In a Dissertation

Plagiarism occurs when one passes someone else’s information on his or her own.  Plagiarism is a common problem especially for students writing long and complex research projects such as theses and dissertations. So if writing a dissertation you should know how to avoid plagiarism. Perhaps you are wondering why worry about this?

Plagiarism is a serious offense as it’s considered deliberate cheating in most academic institutions.  Students caught having plagiarized their work are usually punished severely; either suspended or expelled.

Tips on how to avoid plagiarism

• Ensure you cite any information you include in your dissertation that is not your own including statistical information, facts, and figures.
• Use quotation marks whenever you use the exact authors’ words. Also, remember to indent the quotation if it’s long or more than one sentence.
• If quoting, you can also paraphrase or summarize the information using statements such as “According to….” “Marion says…” and so on. This makes it clear to the reader that what follows is someone else’s opinion or idea.
• If unsure of the statement you’ve written you can use plagiarism checker software to find whether it has any match. You can access plagiarism checker tools on the internet freely.
• Always write from scratch. Do not copy and paste information from other sources. Use your own words to explain the statement.
• Read first, understand what is written, and then write. Do not read and write at the same time, you’ll be tempted to use the same words as the author.

Always edit and proofread your dissertation once complete before you submit it. Go through each sentence carefully and eliminate sentences that do not make sense to you.

Learn how to avoid plagiarism at all costs and you’ll never have to worry about landing in trouble.