Writing

Avoiding Plagiarism: The Writing Process

During the pre-writing stage, set yourself up to avoid plagiarism by:

1. Reading critically. This means ensuring that you fully understand the concepts you will be writing about.
2. Taking notes while you read. Notetaking is an effective way to keep track of your thoughts, reactions, and responses to a source—but it can also be helpful in differentiating your ideas from your sources. As you take notes, make it clear when something is your idea and when an idea belongs to an author.
3. Making a plan. Creating a reading and writing schedule that allows ample time for each stage of the writing process means you’ll be less likely to inadvertently plagiarize.

When you begin drafting your paper, follow these two best practices for avoiding plagiarism:

1. Use evidence appropriately. Academic arguments rely on paraphrases of expert sources for evidence. When incorporating evidence, be sure to paraphrase effectively, using your own words and sentence structure. Include a citation, and if needed, place quotation marks around words or phrases copied directly from your source.
2. Cite as you write. Rather than adding in citations after you have finished writing, create them as go, making sure to cite each paraphrase and quotation in your draft.

As you revise and edit your draft, take the time to avoid plagiarism by:

1. Double-checking your citations. In addition to ensuring that you have cited all paraphrases and quotations in your draft, be sure to check for common citation errors, such as neglecting to include a page or paragraph number when citing a quote, citing an ‘I’ statement, underciting, or overciting.
2. Using a plagiarism detection software. Submitting your work to Turnitin, a plagiarism detection software, can help you avoid accidental plagiarism by identifying ineffective paraphrase and missing quotation marks.