Scholarly Writing and Plagiarism

Grammarly and SafeAssign are tools that are newly introduced to me. These tools have proven to be great resources to utilize as a Walden student to check my work and to ensure references citing errors. It was necessary to read Patricia O’Conner’s writing posted on the blackboard (Walden University, n.d.) three times on three different days before I could begin the assignment. After working hard to paraphrase the writing, I ended up with a summary of 498 words. I stepped back from my work, discussed it with my family to make sure I understood the writing, then returned to rewrite and remain within 100 words.

Grammarly was already downloaded on my computer, so I copied my work to Grammarly and got my report immediately. Grammarly is one of the online resources that I find useful. This online service corrects grammatical mistakes while also catching spelling errors and poor vocabulary usage. The report showed me that I am average in my use of vocabularies when compared to other users. I then returned to my blackboard to submit my writing to SafeAssign and had to wait for a long time for the report, which showed 0%. I was happy with the result as it showed that I did not copy any student’s work nor plagiarized.

A lesson learned from this assignment is that it is necessary to read a writing with understanding before proceeding. Once you understand the writing, it is easier to paraphrase. It is difficult to avoid plagiarism when there is no understanding of the writing. The use of the above tools helped me to identify misspellings, run on sentences and words that were copied from the article while I was paraphrasing. For us to be successful student we must learn to use our own words and thoughts when writing or paraphrasing an author’s work to avoid plagiarism.

To be a successful student we must learn to use our own words and thoughts when writing or paraphrasing an author’s work to avoid plagiarism. According to Walden Writing Center “In a Scholar work, the author is expected to have insight on the issue at hand, but those insights must be grounded in research…”

Useful Online Resources

An online resource useful is Scholarly Voice, found in Walden University Writing Center. This resource explained how to use ‘first person’ in scholarly writing and avoid writing confusing sentences (Walden University, n.d.). Using online tools provided by Walden University when writing will be of great benefit and also make us effective scholarly writers.

APA Formatting Rules

When it comes to writing format, one needs to pay detail attention to the rules. One formatting rule is the use of a semicolon. This sign is “to separate two independent clauses that are not joined by a conjunction.” American Psychological Association, 2010, (p. 89).

Another formatting rule is the use of Double or Single Quotation Marks. Double quotation marks can be used “to introduce a word or phrase for the first time; thereafter, do not use quotation marks”. American Psychological Association, 2010, (p. 92).

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