Over the past few years plagiarism has become a serious issue and has resulted in many problems for students in high school and college. Some schools and colleges now have very strict rules when it comes to plagiarism. A student who is caught plagiarizing risks being suspended and even expelled from college. Plagiarism has become easier since the inception of the internet. Before it was not that easy to plagiarize and even get caught because people used books and journals borrowed from library. Information was not easily accessible as the only source to gather it were books, journals, articles and magazines. Now anyone who knows how to browse and operate the computer can steal someone else’s information with just a click of the mouse. Few years back it used to be difficult to identify plagiarism because the technology was still in its infancy but now it is not that easy for anyone to plagiarize. Mainly there are two types of plagiarisms. One type is intentional where a student deliberately steals someone else’s work. Another one is called unintentional plagiarism and in this one a student does not have deliberate intentions to steal someone else’s ideas but failure to follow proper writing rules can still put him/her in danger. The purpose of this article is to provide you some useful tips as to avoid plagiarism when writing essays. Below are some useful tips for you to consider.

Use Citations

You may not have any intention to copy or steal someone’s work but if you fail to adhere to proper writing rules by using citations you can still be blamed for plagiarism. Every time you intend to use someone else’s ideas in your essays you need to give due credit to that person by using citations according to the requirements of your teacher. If you fail to do so and even though you never had any intention to plagiarize you will still be blamed for plagiarism and can face harsh consequences in terms of suspension and even expulsion from your college.

Use Plagiarism Checker

Every time you write an essay use credible plagiarism checkers. Run your entire essay through this software and you will know the percentage of plagiarism in your essay before submitting it to your teacher. One of the most popular and commonly used plagiarism checkers is turnitin.

It is better to take these precautionary measures before submitting your essay to keep you out of trouble.