Students can adopt paraphrasing as a strategy of avoiding plagiarism. Paraphrasing involves telling or writing a paper using different words from what the original writer wrote. The best way to paraphrase is to read and understand the original text and re-write the ideas in one’s own words without losing meaning. Upon re-writing, the writer must re-read the rendition and ensure it presents the same ideas as the original (Roig, 2001). The writer must remember to use quotations to mark terms that have been copied directly from the source. A proper citation of the original text must then be given to acknowledge the source of the idea.
Personal and cultural views on plagiarism might present challenges if they do not conform to facts on plagiarism. For instance, the view that plagiarism can be avoided by changing a few words within the original text is wrong and may see a student heavily penalized for presenting a plagiarized paper. Ignorance on the seriousness of plagiarism can also see a student present a paper copied from the original directly (Zimitat, 2007).
The student in the first example does mildly excellent job of paraphrasing the original passage and re-writing the ideas in her words. However, the student has borrowed several phrases from the original pieces without indicating so. The use of quotation marks would see the students have too many quotations. Therefore, the student should consider re-wording the direct statements in her own words (Wallwork, 2016). The second student, in the second passage, does not plagiarize her paper. The student uses her own words to present the same ideas presented in the original passage. However, since, the idea is not the student’s; the student references the original authors at the end of her passage.
Reference
Roig, M. (2001). Plagiarism and paraphrasing criteria of college and university professors. Ethics & Behavior, 11(3), 307-323.
Wallwork, A. (2016). Plagiarism and Paraphrasing. In English for Writing Research Papers (pp. 185-196). Springer International Publishing.
Zimitat, C. (2007). A student perspective of plagiarism. Student Plagiarism in an Online World. Problems and Solutions, 10.
Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in paper college 24/7.
