Plagiarism comes in many different forms.
Although many people believe that plagiarism is not harmless, plagiarism is a severe problem, and the repercussions vary depending on various factors.
Choosing to violate plagiarism laws can have far-reaching consequences, with the implications changing according to the level of plagiarism undertaken.
Any individual from any career path or field faces serious ramifications. It has an immediate impact on a person’s reputation.
The repercussions are alike whether the person is knowingly or unknowingly plagiarizing.
You could confront issues in various circumstances if found guilty of plagiarism, whether you are a student, news writer, freelance writer, blogger, or any content creator.
Personal, lawful, and ethical consequences may result.
What do you think when and why do people copy others?
Due to the absence of understanding and knowledge, people copy someone else’s work to complete their specific work.
Plagiarism can occur due to a person being overburdened with work and want to complete it as soon as possible.
However, coming up with new ideas for each task is not as simple as it appears.
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism occurs when you steal and present another person’s work as your own. In between writers, this act is considered unethical and dishonest.
Plagiarism violates a variety of ethical standards and is punishable in several different ways.
On the other hand, plagiarism is a fraud committed by a person to pass off someone else’s work as one of their own.
Plagiarism affects different people from different fields differently.
Let’s see how plagiarism can cost students, teachers, freelance writers, and bloggers.
A Student’s Reputation will get ruined:
You will notice that majority of the cases occur from academic circles. Why do students do so?
Because they lack interest and knowledge.
Copying has been a trend for a long time; most students copy their classmates to complete their assignments.
It seems like not an extreme form, but it is causing them to develop a habit of plagiarism even when they reach their work life.
Students have a common misconception that brainstorming and creative writing are difficult, making them unable to do it independently.
But there is always an exception of a few brilliant students in each class.
A student’s academic career can get terminated due to plagiarism. A pupil may lose the power to compose and write in the future if they have been affected by allegations.
For a successful academic life, writing is an essential component. Writing is a necessary component of a successful educational life.
Students often get suspended from the institution, and plagiarism in higher studies like university thesis or research papers can make students accused of plagiarism.
A Blogger’s Destroyed Reputation:
Many people are interested in blog writing because they like to express their thoughts and skills through words to help people understand different concepts and things.
Two essential elements are required for blog writing: fresh ideas and a strong vocabulary with appropriate application.
If you are a blog writer, keep these two things in your mind. It is challenging to come up with something new to involve readers.
A few people are naturally imaginative and creative; however, most of them require help to produce something interesting.
Some excellent bloggers cite the source or quote the author to avoid plagiarism. To rank higher in SERPs, you have to check for plagiarism in your content.
Bloggers’ reputations can get damage if they are accused of plagiarism. Google will not rank a blog that is consisted of plagiarized content.
A plagiarized blog will not be referred to the readers and will not appear at the top of search engine result pages.
Google or any search engine doesn’t want its visitors to read something that has been copied.
For a blogger’s career, losing readers is not good; if you are a blogger, be careful about writing content for your blog.
Plagiarized content will make your blog rank lower on SERPs, making it less visible to visitors, ultimately reducing the readers. Fewer readers can cost so much to a blogger.
A Freelance Writer’s Ruined reputation:
Being an incredible writer is a requisite to be a great freelance writer.
You have to be creative, innovative, and extraordinary with your skills to attract people to your piece of writing.
What is freelancing? When you persuade and satisfy customers based on their requirements and criteria is what we call freelancing.
All around the world, people recognize freelancers for the quality they provide to their clients.
The level of competition has intensified, and there is a greater need for quality and meaningful content.
To meet the needs of their clients, freelance writers must pay attention to every detail and must work honestly.
Freelance writers ran out of ideas and vocabulary, due to which plagiarism is very common. Copying others can be highly damaging to a freelancer.
If asked to rewrite something they’ve already done, freelancers often copy/paste their previous articles.
It’s one thing that a freelance writer can lose a customer, but their reputation will also get ruined.
Due to plagiarism, a freelance writer gets negative feedback, which lowers the profile, and the writer has to face the loss of important clients.
There are more consequences according to the field, and market people are in. Now the question that comes to your mind must be how to avoid plagiarism? Right?
There are different ways to avoid this plague. The list is mentioned below,
Ways to avoid plagiarism:
1. Whenever it’s required, cite and quote:
You should be aware of the fact that when and where to cite the content.
It is critical to properly quote and cite sources whenever we use research findings, statistics, figures, maps, etc.
Sometimes the original lines seem so impactful and attractive that you feel like using it as it is; you can cite or quote the source after using the original version.
To assist yourself in citing sources, you can consult online reference guides, which will help you give proper credit to the researchers while avoiding plagiarism.
2. Paraphrasing and summarization:
How to summarize and paraphrase a piece of writing while avoiding plagiarism, thinking this just right now?
A condensed version of the original content that emphasizes the main points in your own words and phrases is called a summary.
Summarization could be done manually or a good quality summary generator having a user-friendly interface could be used in this regard.
If you are summarizing an essay of multiple pages, it will be one-page long.
If you are summarizing a page, it will be one or two short paragraphs, but if you are going to summarize a paragraph, it will turn out to be few lines long.
On the other hand, paraphrasing is another way to avoid plagiarism because it is nearly the same size as the actual text but composed in your own words.
3. Don’t forget to cite your work:
If you write on a related or same topic multiple times, you can probably plagiarize your work published earlier.
You must cite your work as well because copying your own is considered plagiarized.
4. Add references:
Using referencing to cite the works you have used in your content creation, essay, and research paper is one of the most helpful pieces of advice on how to prevent plagiarism.
It is accomplished by adding a reference page that lists all of the works mentioned in your content.
5. Make use of a plagiarism checker:
It is one of the most evident methods for avoiding plagiarism. There are plenty of plagiarism checkers available but you should choose a perfect online plagiarism checker after reading reviews, suggestions, and recommendations.
Such resources can be accessed via an application or website, and there are also a variety of free and paid versions available.
Features to look for in a plagiarism checker:
- You could upload a file from your PC storage, Google Drive, or Cloud.
- It should allow you to download plagiarism reports to share with others.
- Keeps your data completely safe and secure.
- It should have multiple language options.
- It should be a user-friendly tool.