As a college student – especially in Canada, one thing you should prioritize when developing an essay or any academic paper is the level of its uniqueness. Although there are myriads of helpers like an essay writing service online that could aid information collation, there’s still a need for you to understand all the fundamental skills and techniques required in obtaining open-source information and then incorporating it in your essay – obviously without plagiarizing.
Before we delve into this discussion, it would be best to understand what plagiarism is all about and how it is being regulated in Canada for private and public use. Shall we?
The Concept of Plagiarism
Plagiarism is generally known as the unethical act of stealing one’s property, in this case – information, without referencing or giving credit to the original work. As Canadian students, you must understand that the law frowns at this act as fines for plagiarism could range from $100 to $1,000,000 depending on the level of infringement. Persons involved can also be made to serve a jail term of up to two (2) years when tried and found guilty. That’s serious.
How the Canadian Government Regularizes Plagiarism?
In a bid to prevent the hike of plagiarism within the country’s borders, Canada has passed what is known as the “Copyright Act.” This law gives liberty to authors who are the original owner of any information to modify their work as they deem fit, either privately or publicly. If by any means copying of any original work is detected, the author is free to involve the help of legal authorities to bring the perpetrator to book. This law extends to properties like artwork, song, literature, and so on.
Penalties of Plagiarism in Canada
In the case of a tertiary institution or college, plagiarism is taken with utmost seriousness, as students involved may have failed due to their dishonesty. This will no doubt harm the student’s academic history. Freelancers (especially bloggers) who habitually incorporate plagiarized content in their work may have to come face-to-face with the law.
If the case were to be commercial plagiarism – which is counted to mildly severe, the perpetrator might be demanded to pay compensation to the original owner, ranging from $500 to $20,000. This also is determined by the gravity of plagiarism. For infringement that tampers directly with any rental or sale of property under copyright, the fine is increased to about a million-dollar (1,000,000) or equivalent 2-year imprisonment.
Now that we are educated on the severity of plagiarism, our next block of learning is to proffer solutions to plagiarism in essay writing (for college students) and freelance writers.
Ways to Stay Clear of Plagiarism in Your Essay Writing
As a student, you must know the “How-tos” of creating unique and quality content. Once this concept is fully understood, you will have higher chances of staying afloat in the ocean of information that we have out there. One thing should ring in your ears: “Uniqueness draws attention.”
The following steps below are sure to help you avoid plagiarism in academic writing to a considerable extent when creating papers.
Plan out Your Time
One common factor that leads to students resorting to plagiarism is time. Without proper time management on when to commence or conclude your essay research, you may be tempted to infringe another person’s work. Prior preparation (which includes adequate time planning) gives you the chance to go through your essay, pay attention to what matters, and get rid of unnecessary information.
Invest on Proofreading
Essay writing without good proofreading may result in a disaster. Similar to planning your time correctly, it is required that you also check manually for errors while you write. This may include you reading your essay or having someone skilled in that area read it for you and suggest due changes to be made.
Use Plagiarism Checkers
One effective way to avoid plagiarism in your academic paper is to leverage the provision of plagiarism checkers made available online. There are limits to the effectiveness of some checkers, which is why you need to find the right one that will serve your needs. If you’re concerned about uniqueness, grammar flow, and spelling errors in your essay, you can use platforms like Grammarly, CopyScape, Quetext to check for errors and adjust them accordingly.
Learn How to Cite Correctly
Citing your source of information is one thing; doing it the right way is entirely different. It is recommended that you get the citation standard for the paper you are working on before you begin any work at all. If any part of a publication you are using, the correct citation will shield you from plagiarism. You can learn how to cite different sources using the APA format for more understanding.
Quotes are Better
When you quote in your essay, you are giving credit to the author of the information. You can directly claim the original owner in your essay as you won’t be charged for plagiarism as you include this technique in your writing.
Add References
See this as creating a list of sources from which you got your information at the end of your essay. Students won’t be accused of plagiarism whenever they reference sources (no matter how many they are). When referencing, you should create the list as you do your research to avoid forgetting any source at the end of your essay.
Paraphrasing
In a situation where the above steps are not coming in handy (especially for a complicated sentence in your paper writing, the best thing to do is to bring your idea to the table by paraphrasing the part you find helpful and writing it down in your understanding. You should be good with paraphrasing before attempting this step. Here are ways on how to paraphrase sources.
Conclusion
When it boils down to writing a unique essay or academic paper as a college student, there are over a dozen ways to achieve that. This guide has helped you streamline the information you need to 7 effective ways of avoiding plagiarism. As you now know, plagiarism is a grievous offense frowned at by the Canadian government, with the potential of getting the person involved sent to prison. By utilizing the steps discussed above, you are sure to create unique and quality content in your essay writing.