Trying to do your assignments by using the shortcut of copying existing data on the internet and simply pasting can later trap you for plagiarism? 

For an academic record with good grades, maintaining a record of well-composed assignments that are free from plagiarism is a must. 

Why should assignments be plagiarism free?

Often students do not pay much attention to the writing task for the assignments, which actually play a vital role in your work’s success. Without giving a second thought about the aftermath, they pick up lines from websites to somehow finish their work and submit it. And if luck does not strike in between, they get caught! 

Most of the universities across the world deal strictly with plagiarism and see it as an illegal and ethical offense. It has happened in a few cases that the students were sternly penalized, suspended or even expelled. To keep yourself safe and use your knowledge in a proper manner, it is best to keep away from trying such tricks.

There are various important benefits of keeping your original and avoiding the copy and paste habit, which are discussed below.

1. Better grades

The value of originality always holds a high value. Anyone can copy, but to create or write something of your own is the rare skill. College faculties too follow the same ideals and consider an original work better than the mindlessly copied stuff. Thus, grades given for plagiarism free work will always be better.

2. Reflection of your ideas

An original work will reflect the actual ideas of the student. It would indeed prove that he has indeed studied about the subject, gathered information, conducted experiments, evaluated the observations and compiled it into a report. A copied work would be someone else’s thoughts, which can be caught if the teachers cross-question you about its details.

3. Authentic references

If a person does all the work originally and on his own, he would go through various resources to collect information, such as books, websites, published journals, articles, study materials, magazines, interviews etc, which are all included in the references. Copied assignments would lack these details, which gives another hint to the faculties about plagiarism. 

How to avoid plagiarism?

Now that you know the benefits of plagiarism, make a habit of keeping your work original. 

Follow these easy steps to ensure that your assignments reflect your own ideas and interpret it in the best way:

1. Conduct your own research

The most important step to avoid copying existing data is to source information on your own. Go through any all the sources of information that you can access and study them yourself. It will help you in brainstorming and develop ideas further on your own.

2. Make your own notes

The first place where to avoid copying is while making notes. Students sneak ideas from their peers’ notebooks, thinking that it will help them in writing a better work. Well, notes of another person would discuss their ideas and perspective. Copying it simply would take you away from the actual direction, decreasing the quality of your work right from the beginning itself. While you do your research, make your own notes and use them when you work on your assignment.

3. Citing 

Follow the guidelines of formatting an assignment properly to avoid plagiarism. Follow the standard formats such as APA, MLA, Chicago etc to keep your workflow organized, failing which it often points out towards plagiarism.

4. Use plagiarism checker

The best way to avoid plagiarism is by using a plagiarism checker. A number of websites on the internet offer you their help to pick out the lines that are copied from an existing online source. Before your teachers evaluate your writing with the plagiarism checker, it would be better if you try out yourself and correct the errors. 

Apart from checking for copied words or phrases in an assignment, various plagiarism checkers also suggest further edits, such as vocabulary enrichments and grammar corrections. All you have to do is put your file for a quick analysis and let the plagiarism checking websites do the rest.

5. Practice expressing sourced information in your own words

One of the most common reasons for failing to write on original assignment is the inability to express the data you collect in your own words. Students who are not skilled in writing often go through such kind of trouble. Do some work on expressing someone else’s or information which you collect from websites in your own words. 

Things to take care of writing a good assignment

Now when you are aiming to write original content, it is important to make sure that you write an excellent one. 

Follow these guidelines that will help you in writing a good essay.

1. Draft an outline 

Before you write the final essay, plan an outline of the elements that are to be included. Make a brief plan about the following things:

• Title

A short, crisp and to the point title is preferred. It must be capable of catching the attention of the readers in the first go itself, as it the first sentence of your work that a person would read.

• Introduction

Introduce your subject to your readers in the introduction. A shot yet well-informed introduction is apt, better if you begin it with a catchy phrase that is relevant to your topic.

• Thesis statement

The thesis statement is a sentence that explains the objective of writing your essay and what to intend to achieve by its end. Brainstorm well to frame a clear and meaningful statement to deliver a distinct message about your ideas.

• Body

The main content should be discussed well in the body, supported with sufficient and relevant facts, illustrations and examples. Divide the body further into subtopics, depending on which your paragraphs would get the shape too. Commonly, a piece of writing contains three paragraphs for the body, but it depends on the subject as well.

• Conclusion

The conclusion should leave a strong impression and convincing thoughts into the readers’ minds. Do not end by stating your subject again. Write a brief note about how the research has helped you in justifying the topics, have you achieved your aim to study the topic etc.

2. Check again and again for errors

Check and recheck your work again and again to catch any error. Spelling errors are the most common ones to occur, followed by grammatical errors. Read the lines well before submitting your work. An assignment with too many errors could lower your grades. 

3. Research well

For a good content, it is wise to invest a good time in research. Run through as much as sources you can find to collect the right data, such as books, journals, magazines, websites, articles etc.

4. Good editing

Remove all those unnecessary pieces of your assignment that are not much required. Often it is observed that students add irrelevant data to lengthen their essay, which they believe that the longer the essay, the more the work it will appear. Well, the truth is different from that. 

Keeping pointless information in your article will reduce the quality of your work and may even misguide the readers. Thus, it is a must to do a good job at editing.

5. Follow referencing formats

It is a must to mention the references that you have used to collect your information, which justifies the authenticity of your assignment. Thus, follow the formats properly.