It's important to remember that plagiarism can be both intentional and unintentional. However, unintentional plagiarism carries the same consequences. There are steps you can take to avoid plagiarizing unintentionally:
- Plan well: Make sure you give yourself enough time to properly research and write your assignment. This will get rid of the temptation to plagiarize and make you less likely to make a careless mistake.
- Take good notes: When taking notes, be sure to keep track of which source your information is coming from, which of your notes are direct quotes and paraphrases, and make sure to note where in the source your information is coming from.
- Keep track of your sources: Be sure to note which books and articles you have used. If you locate an article online make sure to either print out the article or save the bibliographic information so that you can find the article again for reference.
- Ask a librarian or your professor for help: When in doubt, always ask a librarian or your professor for help. They can easily help you avoid plagiarism!
Cite your Sources: Keep moving in this tutorial to find out why, how and when to cite your sources.
Creative Commons License
This guide is adapted from the Plagiarism Tutorial created by the University of Southern Mississippi. This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International License.