Quick Navigation
When faced with the time-consuming, massive task of writing a thesis, people are often tempted to copy another person's thoughts, ideas, and work. However, all educational establishments do not tolerate or allow this and severely punish people who plagiarize–never mind that plagiarizing a paper is highly unethical. Whether you're introducing research report findings, examining a subject, or writing some other analysis, there's no doubt that third-party sources provide your work with extra authority. But, there is a difference between using these third-party sources as evidence to back up an idea or thought and misrepresenting them as your own work or ideas. This article from Papersowl will discuss how to avoid plagiarism, why doing so is essential, and how to remove plagiarism from thesis papers. Before you submit any work, you must fix plagiarism within.
What is Plagiarism?
Before we begin, it's important to have a clear understanding of what plagiarism is. According to Oxford University:
"Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgment."
Notice how we have linked the source to this definition and, as it is using direct words, we have encapsulated it with quotation marks. This is so that we cannot be accused of plagiarism too! Plagiarism is often deliberate, but it can also be unintentional. If a writer is lazy and decides to add their references after completing a section, it could be that they forget something that needs a reference. If you carelessly use someone else's words or ideas without citing them properly, you are also plagiarizing their work in that you're passing it off as your own. There may be no malicious intent, but it still falls under plagiarism.
In the last two decades, it's become easier to detect plagiarism in written work. Universities have been able to check essays for a while, but now the software is readily available online, and students can also use them to learn how to correct plagiarism in their work. When essays and theses were handwritten, it was much more difficult to know if someone had plagiarized another person's work. Nowadays, however, it is thankfully easier to detect.
When writing, copy-and-paste should never be a consideration at all!
What Is Considered Plagiarism in a Thesis?
Broadly speaking, plagiarism is copying someone else's work and not crediting it. When it comes to research, you can't include someone else's thesis, findings, evidence, or conclusion without citing them or referencing them in the proper way. You might be wondering why lecturers and teachers care so much about plagiarism but there are many reasons why they do and why they should. These include:
- Plagiarism is essentially stealing. When you use other people's ideas and they're passed off as your own, it is unethical.
- The person reading (and marking) your work needs to know that you understand the subject and the work. They want to gauge how much you understand the topic, and they can't do that when you have copied the work from another person.
- The lecturers and teachers need to know that the work has been done by you. After all, if you've done the research and analyzed its findings, you've done the hard bit! Thus, plagiarism free essays should always be the goal.
Why Should You Avoid Plagiarism?
Plagiarism, at its very core, is an issue of ethics. When a writer submits plagiarized work, they commit theft and hope that they benefit from that theft. It doesn't matter if you're a high school student wanting to achieve a grade A or a professional writer hoping for monetary compensation – plagiarism is plagiarism. Writers seek to avoid and remove plagiarism because their integrity is then compromised. Not only does the writer lose respect from their peers and mentors, but plagiarism could also cost them valuable career advancement and professional referrals. For anyone still in education, plagiarism can result in being dismissed and not achieving the qualifications you signed up for. What's more, plagiarism takes both credit and profit from the work's true creator – and this could even result in legal problems.
How To Remove Plagiarism from Your Thesis?
If you're worried about plagiarism – even unintentional and accidental – there are ways you can avoid it and remove it from a research paper or essay. Let's take a look at ways to fix plagiarism:
- Make use of a plagiarism checker tool to fix plagiarism
This is a very useful way of checking your work for content that has been copied or plagiarized using a plagiarism checker online. There are free tools online as well as paid ones.
Depending on the checker used, you will either have to upload the document as a computer file, share its URL (if you have saved it on a cloud storage service), or copy and paste it into a browser window. After doing so, the software will check through the work with a fine-tooth comb and compare it against other texts stored online, on the internet, or in educational databases.
The analysis might take a few minutes, but once it is complete, it will present a uniqueness or originality score. Where the result is not higher than 85%, it is highly recommended to rewrite sections of the work. Depending on the plagiarism checker used, the tool will highlight which parts are the same as other written sources. This is how you know which bits of editing and changing.
- Using a software program
If an online application is not suitable, it is possible to download plagiarism software to your device. Typically, this software has all of the same features as online plagiarism checkers. You will, however, have more features and advanced features if you pay for a software package. For example, there might be suggestions on how you can fix plagiarism in your written work.
How Much of a Thesis Paper Can Be Plagiarized?
The simple answer is none in an ideal world. When discussing theses, the rules are strict, and you should always try to find and rectify plagiarism before handing anything in. You might end up with some similar sentences to those that appear in academic papers. Your lecturer and teacher could ignore this.
Yet, if this happens recurrently, you might be penalized – and depending on the extent of the plagiarism, this might be harsh. Therefore, using an online plagiarism detection tool is always a recommendation before work is submitted.
When you're writing a paper, you might be interested in looking at ways to remove plagiarism. There are many ways to make sure your work is original. A plagiarism tool that will remove and suggest changes for your text in order to unplagiarize it. Once you know it exists, you should do everything in your power to remove plagiarism from your thesis.
To remove plagiarism is essential if not for your own ethics and morals, for the fact that you might be severely penalized if the work is found to contain another's work passed off as your own. After using a remove plagiarism tool, you can get rid of (or properly reference) text that isn't your own ideas and submit work to be proud of. For those who may need extra help, there are also essay writers for hire who can provide professional assistance to ensure that your work is unique and of the highest quality.
