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Plagiarism Detection & Revision Skills: A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism

Last updated 5/6/2020

 

Visual: Screen opens to a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The title Walden University Writing Center and tagline “Your writing, grammar, and APA experts” appears on the screen. The screen changes to show the series title “Plagiarism Detection & Revision Skills” and the video title “A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism.”

Audio: Guitar music

 

Visual: The screen changes to show a slide with the following title and content: A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism

  • Critical Reading
  • Researching & Taking Notes
  • Reviewing & Revising
  • Time & Writing Schedule

Audio: Avoiding plagiarism is important for all academic writing since plagiarism can be a significant writing issue. However, while writers might be aware of what plagiarism is, it can be more difficult to avoid plagiarism in practice. We recommend these four strategies to develop a writing process for avoiding plagiarism: critical reading, researching and taking notes, reviewing and revising, and considering your time and writing schedule.

 

Visual: As the speaker continues, the following text is added to the slide: A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism

  • Critical Reading
    • Fully understand the ideas and concepts
  • Researching & Taking Notes
    • Carefully note where ideas come from
  • Reviewing & Revising
    • Fix insufficient quoting, paraphrasing, and citing
  • Time & Writing Schedule
    • Create time to avoid rushing and writing last minute

Audio: Critical reading involves fully understanding the ideas and concepts you’re writing about. Researching and taking notes refers to carefully noting where ideas come from. Reviewing and revising means fixing errors in quoting, paraphrasing, and citing. And considering your time and writing schedule involves creating time to avoid rushing and writing last minute.

 

Visual: The screen changes to show a slide with the following title and content: A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism

  • Critical Reading: Fully understand the ideas and concepts

Audio: Let’s first explore critical reading. Critical reading is essential because when writers don’t fully understand what they read, they may find paraphrasing difficult. If a student doesn’t fully understand what they are reading, they might feel uncomfortable integrating it into their writing; this might mean they rely on insufficient quoting or paraphrasing in their writing, resulting in plagiarism.

 

Visual: As the speaker continues, the following text is added to the slide:

  • Take your time
  • Paraphrase as you read
  • Look up concepts

Audio: To help you with critical reading, take your time reading; it can be tempting to rush this step, but taking your time is important to fully understanding and then integrating the reading into your writing. Also try to paraphrase as you read, which will help you critically engage with your reading. Finally, look up concepts as needed, ensuring you fully understand what you’re reading.

 

Visual: The screen changes to show a slide with the following title and content: A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism

  • Researching & Taking Notes: Carefully note where ideas come from

Audio: Next let’s look at researching and taking notes. As you research and take notes, carefully note where ideas come from. If writers don’t pay close attention to their researching and note taking process, when they go to write they can falsely assume that quotations or information from a source are actually their own, creating confusion and the possibility of plagiarism.

Visual: As the speaker continues, the following text is added to the slide:

  • Add quotation marks
  • Include citations
  • Note page numbers

Audio: To help you with researching and taking notes, be sure to add quotation marks around any quotations you include in your notes. Also add citations to any quotations or paraphrases you include in your notes to separate them from your own ideas. Finally, add page numbers to key passages so you can find them again at a later time.

 

Visual: The screen changes to show a slide with the following title and content: A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism

  • Reviewing & Revising: Fix insufficient quoting, paraphrasing, and citing

Audio: Now let’s examine reviewing and revising. Reviewing and revising your writing is important to the writing process as a whole, but it’s also particularly important for avoiding plagiarism. By taking the time to review and revise your writing, you’ll catch and revise errors that could be plagiarism.

 

Visual: As the speaker continues, the following text is added to the slide:

  • Use SafeAssign
  • Highlight citations
  • Compare paraphrases to the original

Audio: One resource that can help you with reviewing and revising is an originality checker, like SafeAssign. These automatic programs can identify inappropriately cited quotations or paraphrases, noting places for possible revision. Another approach is to highlight all of your citations in your draft, which can help you visually identify where citations might be missing. It can also be helpful to compare your paraphrases to the original source to ensure you’ve fully paraphrased the source’s ideas in your own voice.

 

Visual: The screen changes to show a slide with the following title and content: A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism

  • Time & Writing Schedule: Create time to avoid rushing and writing last minute

Audio: Finally, let’s look at time and writing schedule. All of these strategies can be difficult to implement if you don’t have enough time and an appropriate writing schedule. While Walden students are usually very busy with school, work, and personal commitments, it’s important to build in as much time as you can to your writing process to help you avoid plagiarism.

 

Visual: As the speaker continues, the following text is added to the slide:

  • Create a schedule
  • Ensure you proof and edit
  • Take a break

Audio: One way to ensure you have time for your writing process is to create a writing schedule. Setting aside time for various stages of the writing process will help you avoid rushing at the last minute before your deadline. Specifically, make sure you set aside time to proofread and edit your writing. These last steps can be overlooked without a writing schedule. Finally, allow yourself to take a break while you write. Taking a break—even if it’s only a 15 or 30 minute break—can help you see your writing in a new way and identify revisions needed to avoid plagiarism.

 

Visual: The screen changes to show a slide with the following title and content: A Writing Process for Avoiding Plagiarism

  • Critical Reading
    • Fully understand the ideas and concepts
  • Researching & Taking Notes
    • Carefully note where ideas come from
  • Reviewing & Revising
    • Fix insufficient quoting, paraphrasing, and citing
  • Time & Writing Schedule
    • Create time to avoid rushing and writing last minute

Audio: Keep in mind these four writing process strategies for avoiding plagiarism as you write. Each of these strategies will help you develop a strong writing process and, in turn, help you avoid plagiarism in your writing.

 

Visual: The screen changes to an ending slide a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The email address writingsupport@mail.waldenu.edu appears on the screen.