@ Plagiarism-free thesis: Are you worried that your thesis paper will get rejected because of plagiarism? Worry not! We have come up with a comprehensive guide. But first, we need to understand what plagiarism is. Plagiarism is the act of representing as one’s original work the creative works of another, without appropriate acknowledgment of the author or source. It is important to note that this definition extends beyond words printed in text and refers to all the elements in someone else’s work including but not limited to ideas and arguments; images such as diagrams, charts, and pictures; compositions; and organizational structures.
Plagiarism can present itself in several ways, here are some examples and types of plagiarism:
- Copying or allowing your work to be copied text, ideas, concepts, research results, statistical tables, computer programs, designs, images or sounds, or any combination of these
- Paraphrasing another person’s work with minor changes, but keeping the meaning, form, and progression of ideas of the original
- Piecing together sections of the work of others into a new whole
- Submitting part or all of an assignment twice for separate subjects or marks
- Presenting an assignment as independent work when it has been produced in whole or part in collusion with other people, for example, another student or a tutor
Understanding a Thesis
A plagiarism-free thesis is a type of academic research paper based on your original research and is usually submitted as the final step of a master’s program or a capstone to a bachelor’s degree. Writing a thesis can be a daunting experience. It relies on your ability to conduct research from start to finish: choosing a relevant topic, crafting a proposal, designing your research, collecting data, developing a robust analysis, drawing strong conclusions, and writing concisely.
Plagiarism-free thesis: Steps for Removing Plagiarism from a Thesis
- Allow ample time for writing and revision
Writers should allot sufficient time when writing and also when revising their articles. Probably the most compelling argument why many academics still indulge in plagiarism is that it is easier to copy something than to write from scratch. Having the ability to write is good, but writing is not only difficult but it’s also time-consuming.
What the aspiring author should understand is that any journal will automatically submit the new manuscript for plagiarism analysis and if you receive a rejection on such grounds, you are done for. Be wary of copying original ideas down and, instead, try to paraphrase while taking notes and when writing the first draft; remember, you can always go back to the original text in case of some confusion.
- Quote your work
To quote a text means to include a short section from a source, in its original form and wording, in your work. As neither the idea nor the wording is your own, you need to signal to your reader that the words are a quotation and also include a reference to where the original can be found.
- If you don’t signal this clearly, you run the risk of plagiarism, as without quotation marks, the reader will falsely assume that the words are yours. Because you are citing text from a specific page in the original, it is common practice to include the page number in the reference so the reader can find it directly without having to read the whole source. When incorporating quotations into your work ensure you;
- Implementing a direct quote in writing entails integrating from a source text a passage that is no more than that portion of a writing, and reproducing it in the target text in the same structural form and words as it is in the source. Since the idea and the wording are not your own, there is a need to let your reader know by pointing and underlining the quoted words, using quotation marks, to also provide information where one can get the original work.
- If you don’t signal this clearly, you risk plagiarizing and, as far as no quotation marks are applied, the reader would state that all the words are yours. It would be helpful because by citing text from a particular page in the original, it is customary to make the page number included in the reference, and would enable the reader to locate it at once without having to browse through the entire source.
- Enclosure in Quotation Marks:
Any spoken line must be delimited with quotation marks regardless of the quote length. This practice eliminates any ambiguity regarding the attribution of information that is being cited, as the readers are immediately informed that the specific words being used belong to another author. The use of quotation marks is a basic, indispensable feature pointing to the borrowing of words or phrases in the shape of quotations, dialogues, texts, and terms which are also known as speech marks, inverted commas, or quote marks.
- Sparingly Use Quotes:
Exactly where possible, utilization of quotes ought to be moderate as part of your textual content. If carried out to the extreme, it can distort your ability to make valid points and create an impression of a lack of personal input. Quoting is valuable to advance your argument by buttressing it with quotations from authentic sources while avoiding using other people’s ideas.
- Provide Context and Relevance:
Before submitting any quotation, there must be enough background information that will give the tutor a clear indication of how the quote fits into the general argument. When this is not the case, quotes will seem to be disconnected from the flow of your paper or even irrelevant. An ideal quote seamlessly fits an essay’s context and serves to enhance the writer’s argument.
- Paraphrase
You can provide a version of the text possibly re-written in your own words and record the source. Just bear in mind that rewriting another person’s opinion while keeping to the original citations is not a case of cheating; nonetheless, you ought to restate the opinion in your own words. It is good not to have the original in front of you, in the act of writing as this will limit your ability to find other words to use and how one can form the sentences in the document. It is quite challenging to find and use your own words and for this reason, there is a strong recommendation for wider reading beyond scientific journals and texts. When paraphrasing remember to;
8. Hide the original.
Don’t look at it. Trust yourself that the definition you have in mind of what it is and does not even contain something or is not destined to turn into something else. We know all these in informal language, let us translate all these notes into academic language.
Remember that your target is to provide the version that is, in fact, more academic and closer to the original text than the final draft of the student who decided to translate the text just for the sake of gaining a better understanding of the source material; however, it does not necessarily mean that your version had to be stylistically superior to the original just comprehensible and strictly academic English would be quite enough.
When a book is published it is written by scholars and so your account might even be more impressive than the original publication. It doesn’t have to be a completely unbiased one either and you are free to choose a positive or negative connotation for the words you are using in the paraphrase as long as you are not altering the meaning of the whole sentence or the idea that is being discussed.
9. Now scan it for plagiarism-free thesis
To know whether it has maintained the tone of the original one or not. For the little things you think you have left out, you need to determine if the aspect is relevant to your argument or not. This is the critical elimination we undergo to aid in narrowing down our stand or the argument we are supporting or holding.
Further, use state-of-the art plagiarism detection tools such as Turnitin , Copyscape and Grammarly to verify the originality of the work produced to avoid plagiarism
Conclusion
Remember, it is not plagiarism to use somebody else’s idea and reword it properly while providing a citation; however, you must restate the idea in your language. It is also important not to have the original at hand when translating to write as the signal provided by the text may inhibit the writer’s ability to approach the task more creatively. Speaking from your vocabulary and understanding is by no means a straightforward process, which means that it is necessary to read more broadly and not only journals and textbooks.
