Plagiarism is a persistent problem not only in the academic field but also in the business world. Plagiarism is the act of stealing and copying someone else’s idea without proper citation (Plagiarism.org, 2014). Plagiarized matter is sometimes reproduced in another form different from its original source whilst the writer acknowledges the idea as their own. The issue of plagiarism has been the strongest enemy of educators and writers, thus making it as the cancer of the writing industry.
According to the official website of the Plagiarism.org (2014), a researcher can commit plagiarism if they fail to paraphrase the sentence; hence, the ideas generally make up the whole paper and regardless if there is an in-text citation, it is still considered as plagiarism. Mismatched information is another form of plagiarism whilst the obvious method of plagiarism is the copy and paste procedure. This is common amongst the term papers of students who fail to cite the sources of the information.
Moreover, to avoid plagiarism, several tools were developed to check the originality of the submitted paper. Turnitin is the world’s largest plagiarism checker and this software is indeed reliable because once the paper has been submitted, the software stores the data for future references. Educators also use online plagiarism software that tracks the information written on various websites whilst checking the authenticity of the thoughts. In the business world, plagiarism is also an issue of integrity. According to an article written by Miranda Brookins, plagiarism can also occur in the workplace and the effects of plagiarized business proposals made companies lose their earnings and ruin the brand name and the reputation and integrity not only of the company but the researcher as well (Brookins, 2014). Hence, companies should be meticulous in studying the proposals before approving them. Furthermore, companies should conduct a business presentation for every proposal so that everyone from the company can take a closer look on the manuscript.
Avoiding plagiarism can be difficult at some point. Sometimes, paraphrasing entire words can lose their ‘convincing effect’ to readers; writers often find it hard to quote or paraphrase written material and to plagiarize means the act of being unethical writer. A real writer uses sources to justify their proposition using empirical evidences provided by the internet or books. Moreover, to become an ethical writer, one must know how to give credit to other writers by following different guidelines in different citation styles. Citation styles such as APA and MLA are the two most popular citation styles. MLA is often used in Humanities whilst APA is specifically designed for the sciences. Researchers can avoid plagiarism by first, reading books. A writer is a good reader as well; and by reading just a few pages, writers can write juicy papers with a sense.
An ethical researcher always exhausts the library and the internet as their primary sources of information. Having a short overview about the topic is a great help in understanding the given topic. First, as a researcher before I submit the paper, I use Web Checker, an online plagiarism software that tracks the information written in the paper. Researchers are unfortunately not aware of this procedure. Likewise, plagiarism is not an ethical way of a writer and there is no way to steal a thought generated by someone else.
References
Brookins, M. (2014). Examples of Plagiarism in the Workplace. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 24 December 2014, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-plagiarism-workplace-11971.html
Plagiarism.org: Best Practices for Ensuring Originality in Written Work,. (2014).What is Plagiarism? Retrieved 24 December 2014, from http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism
