Avoiding plagiarism

Introduction
With modern technologys development, it provides us a convenient way to search for resources,
but on the other hand, academic integrity is getting threatened at the same time. When people are
sharing their intellectual properties to others, some of those people do not show their respects to
other peoples work, and even use it without reference. Actions are needed to prevent people
from plagiarizing. In academic area, this action is called plagiarism. The definition of plagiarism,
and intellectual property in western concepts are supposed to be known. After being familiar
with the definition, there are some typical plagiarism types are able to be used as examples to
give a close look of it. Finally, there will be some practical steps to help students avoid
plagiarizing at school. Thus, it is important for students to understand the academic integrity, and
come up with some practical methods to help students prevent from plagiarizing.

Definition of plagiarism and intellectual property

When it comes to the academic plagiarism, most people call it cheating, or stealing. There is no
doubt that academic plagiarism is a disrespect action to other peoples intellectual properties,
which is a violation to academic integrity. Obviously, these two words, plagiarism, and
intellectual property are tightly related. In western concept, plagiarism is defined as using
another writer words or unique ideas as if they were your own. 1 And intellectual property is the
writers words or unique ideas mentioned above. By understanding their definitions, Academic
integrity is easier to understand as the understanding what it means to be honest in the particular

1William B. Badke, Beyond the Answer Sheet: Academic Success for International Students (iUniverse,
Inc, 2003), 97

culture of the academic world, and being able to apply the scholarly conventions of
acknowledgement2. Thus, academic integrity is more likely an ethic policy, which contains
values as avoidance of plagiarism, which plays an essential role in academic performance.

Common types
In addition to understand the definition of plagiarism, academic integrity and intellectual
property, noticing various ways that plagiarism occurs in academic settings are able to give us a
close look.

Besides two types of plagiarism, complete and direct plagiarism, which are

considered to be the most common type of plagiarism, there are actually four more types of
plagiarismparaphrased, mosaic, lazy plagiarism, and self-plagiarism 3. When these types
happen, people are showing no respect to the writers generosity. Meanwhile, by looking at these
types of plagiarism, they remind students that in which aspects, people usually make mistakes in
plagiarism. Furthermore, it also gives students the idea that academic integrity is really important
in a different angle.

Solution
After knowing the definition of plagiarism, and the common types of plagiarism, figure out some
practical steps to avoid plagiarism should be a top priority. It is well-known that every source has

2 Erika Lofstrom, Tiffany Trotman, Mary Furnari, Kerry Shephard, Who teaches academic integrity and how do they teach it?
High Educ 69; 435-448 (2015),
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.mutex.gmu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=cd1ccfcb-7a95-4f87-8adaa78726c6abe6%40sessionmgr102&vid=4&hid=102

3 Academic Integrity, Purdue University, http://webs.purduecal.edu/integrity/dishonesty/definitions-plagiarism/

to be cited. In this part, note-taking and reference list actually are good ways to avoid
plagiarism.4 For instance, in graduate study, there are a lot of academic writing assignments like
case study and research paper. They require students to read a big amount of previous researches
or articles. So, in the process of doing research, note-taking and reference list are the most useful
tools for students to avoid unintentional plagiarism. Moreover, another situation is also worth
mentioningunintentional plagiarism. It occurs a lot especially in international students who are
not very familiar with the definition of academic plagiarism. As a result, there are some practical
and concrete introductions for avoiding plagiarism. Firstly, if the topic of writing is based on the
article that has already been written, students could develop their arguments by create something
new. Secondly, in academic writing, compare with relying on or totally agreeing with experts or
authorities opinion, it is better to improve upon or disagree with the original opinion and give
some alternatives. Moreover, in citing sources, paraphrase or summarize previous research is an
expected way than just direct quote it.5

Conclusion
In conclusion, academic integrity is a important part of school life for students, however,
plagiarism not only betrays the academic integrity, but also leads to serious penalties in both
assignments and final grade, which even impacts the academic success to a great degree. By
understanding the definition of plagiarism, common types of plagiarism, the importance of
4Sue Burkill, Caroline Abbey, Avoiding Plagiarism Journal of Geography in Higher Education 28, no.
3 (2004), http://web.b.ebscohost.com.mutex.gmu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0ce8e29c-3b894d53-999d-fa267e81967a%40sessionmgr115&vid=51&hid=106
5Karl Stolley, Allen Brizee, Joshua M. Paiz, Avoiding Plagiarism, Purdue OWL, last modified October 10, 2014,
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/

academic integrity has been strengthened, and eventually there are concrete steps to help students
avoiding this plagiarism problem.

Reference
William B. Badke, Beyond the Answer Sheet: Academic Success for International Students
(iUniverse, Inc, 2003), 97
Erika Lofstrom, Tiffany Trotman, Mary Furnari, Kerry Shephard, Beyond the Answer Sheet:
Academic Success for International Students, High Educ 69; 435-448 (2015),
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.mutex.gmu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=cd1ccfcb-7a954f87-8ada-a78726c6abe6%40sessionmgr102&vid=4&hid=102
Academic Integrity, Purdue University,
http://webs.purduecal.edu/integrity/dishonesty/definitions-plagiarism/
Karl Stolley, Allen Brizee, Joshua M. Paiz, Avoiding Plagiarism, Purdue OWL, last modified
October 10, 2014, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/
Sue Burkill, Caroline Abbey, Avoiding Plagiarism Journal of Geography in Higher Education
28, no. 3 (2004), http://web.b.ebscohost.com.mutex.gmu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
sid=0ce8e29c-3b89-4d53-999d-fa267e81967a%40sessionmgr115&vid=51&hid=106