[GUIDE] Plagiarism and how to avoid it.

[DireWolfM14]

Plagiarism, simply stated is the act of taking somebody else’s work and attempting to portray it as your own.  This can be done orally or in print, music, art, expression, or video.  For the purpose of this article I’ll focus on printed plagiarism.  Obviously that’s the concern here on the forum due it being… uh, well, you know, a forum.

It’s understandable that many bots or lazy spammers take other people’s work and post it willy-nilly to bolster their post count, and spread their spam without significance.  That’s not what I’m aiming to address.  Instead my target audience is those of you who have no such intentions, but are merely here to discuss the pertinent topic, and would like to stay out of trouble while doing so.

I’ve noticed a few cases lately where people have been banned for plagiarism, but after a bit of research it was plainly obvious they made a simple mistake.  Unintentional plagiarism is just as damaging to the reputation of the forum as the spambots’ plagiaristic activities.  So, even a simple mistake is no excuse, and it’s a mistake that is very easily avoided.  Take heed; plagiarism is not taken lightly here.

There’s nothing wrong with citing another’s work to help support your point or argument, or to augment your own words on a particular subject.  So, let’s explore how to do that properly, and avoiding being perma-banned.

The simplest way to properly credit someone for their work is to simply use quotation marks, and add their name or a source after the passage you’re quoting.  Here’s an example:

Code:

“Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn’t any. But this wrongs the jackass.”
 - Mark Twain
 

If you need to attribute the text to a source, make it clear and label it as a source to avoid ambiguity.  Even if you attribute the text to an author, it never hurts to cite a source.  In fact it helps a lot.  Again, make it clear like so:

Code:

Source: https://bookhaven.stanford.edu/2009/12/mark-twain-revisited-a-reply-from-shelley/

Another way credit an author for their work is to use the quote function available in the posting window:
Select the text you want to attribute as a quote, then click the “Insert Quote” button on the options panel.







You can also attribute the text to an author by adding “author=<name>” within the quote bracket, like my example below:

Code:

[quote author=Mark Twain]
Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn’t any. But this wrongs the jackass.
[/quote]

Example:

Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn’t any. But this wrongs the jackass.

[DdmrDdmr]

<...>

Wouldn't this post be better suited be on the Beginners & Help board? I mean the target audience is much better suited there, unless you’re foreseeing a constant mass migration of Newbies to Meta, planning to settle here long term (there’s a temporary one now for obvious reasons)…

[Vod]

Change the title to
[Guide]  Plagiarism and how to avoid it.

 

[r1s2g3]

Unintentional plagiarism is just as damaging to the reputation of the forum as the spambots’ plagiaristic activities.  So, even a simple mistake is no excuse, and it’s a mistake that is very easily avoided.  

Some are are very intentional they are doing text spinning, paraphrasing , merging more than one sources and using homographs.
All of the above activities again fall in plagiarism and will get the user banned.

Newbies   All take heed; plagiarism is not taken lightly here.

Change it to All.

[DireWolfM14]

Wouldn't this post be better suited be on the Beginners & Help board? I mean the target audience is much better suited there, unless you’re foreseeing a constant mass migration of Newbies to Meta, planning to settle here long term (there’s a temporary one now for obvious reasons)…

Change the title to
[Guide]  Plagiarism and how to avoid it.

 

Newbies  All take heed; plagiarism is not taken lightly here.

Change it to All.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[DireWolfM14]

The odds of that happening are very low if you are expressing a unique idea, using your own words, and you have a reasonably good vocabulary.

One of the biggest problems this forum experiences are people who don't read the entire thread before replying.  They reply to the OP without any clue what has already been discussed.  The risk is more when people do that.  But again, although very likely to be a shitpost, it's not likely to be plagiarism. 

[audaciousbeing]

Well, first, thanks for OP, this is very helpful. But, there is something I want to ask more specifically.

As you said, "Unintentional plagiarism is just as damaging to the reputation of the forum as the spambots' plagiaristic activities" yes it, "unintentional plagiarism" which concerns me as a newbie in this forum.

What if someone didn't intend to do Plagiarism, but, in the end he was detected doing Plagiarism. as an example; I made a thread or replied to a post, and I did not intend to do Plagiarism because I only write what was in my mind without looking for references from out there (doing a google search, for example), but, apparently, what I write has similarities or exactly the same as someone's writing (either in this forum, or in an article out there).

So my question is, how to make sure that what I write is not someone's writing on this forum or someone out there?,
because I thought it would be painful if someone did not commit Plagiarism but he was banned for reasons of Plagiarism.

Please guide me!

Regards. 

You have raised some valid point but truth be told. Where the issus of plagiarism occur is not of just a word or two words but a full sentence. There is no way our thoughts can be the same and even if we want to say the same thing we will say it differently. But that does not give room to paraphrase because that would be so glaring and you begin to wonder that, except these two individuals are the same, they cannot have thoughts that is similar as this.

Also, there are some general statement that one person can lay claim to and the use of it cannot amount to plagiarism. Words such as "health is wealth", "money is life", "there is no dignity in begging", "there are unwritten rules on the forum" etc. Using these words to drive home your point by adding "there is a saying that..." would absolve any form of plagiarism.

[suchmoon]

Thank you, sir, you make me understand this better. Thank you very much.

the next question, Is there a specific way to avoid plagiarism, or rather ensure that what I write is not someone else's writing?

how about that? I have to admit, I became very worried about plagiarism now!

You seem to be fishing for how to avoid detection.

It's extremely unlikely for a genuine user to compose a post so similar to another user's post that it can be perceived as plagiarism. Don't copy-paste without quotes or attribution and you'll be fine.

[xha-256]

Thank you, sir, you make me understand this better. Thank you very much.

the next question, Is there a specific way to avoid plagiarism, or rather ensure that what I write is not someone else's writing?

how about that? I have to admit, I became very worried about plagiarism now!

There's a small chance it will happen, but there are still chances like if you post on some megathreads in bitcoin discussion and speculations that has generic questions.
What I saw there is different threads but still have almost the same questions just quite bit different in phrasing. And I saw on report plagiarism thread so many report even a 5-8 words sentence was reported, I just don't know if the user got banned though.

[tmfp]

Change the title to
[Guide]  Plagiarism and how to avoid it.

 

Careful Vod, you're skating on thin ice there.

Guide on Plagiarism and how to avoid it

Civilisation, the orderly world in which we live, is frail. We are skating on thin ice. 

Oh shit, hoist by my own petard 

Hoist with his own petard

Double shit.

[mcnocon2]

Thanks for this amazing thread, I didn't know too much about plagiarism and what are the consequences in doing so. But since you include in this thread what is plagiarism and how to avoid it, I think its not necessary to learn what is the consequences in doing plagiarism. I just have to avoid plagiarism by following this thread and learn from it. I've seen many post in this forum that are copied from others thread so its better to read this one.

[audaciousbeing]

Thank you, sir, you make me understand this better. Thank you very much.

the next question, Is there a specific way to avoid plagiarism, or rather ensure that what I write is not someone else's writing?

how about that? I have to admit, I became very worried about plagiarism now!

The only specific way to avoid plagiarism is not to cut corners. For every word copied, someone has written it before. So, focus on creating your own word. Give it a deep thought before posting by understanding what exactly is being said or the topic of discussion before giving a response.

Two, there is no law that says you cannot use content of other people when you fail to acknowledge it, that's when it becomes plagiarism so when you copy other people's work, statement, article, quote reference it and you won't have anything to fear

[Daboy_Lyle]

Small additional to this is putting sources. We can also avoid plagiarism by putting the source below the topics.

Code:

Examples of sourcing:
1. [url=SOURCE HERE]Source[/url]
2. Sources: [url]LINK[/url] [url]LINK[/url]

Like this:
Source
Sources: LINK LINK
Examples

[bL4nkcode]

the next question, Is there a specific way to avoid plagiarism, or rather ensure that what I write is not someone else's writing?

Specific way? Just create your post by your own words and understanding. There's no way that your original post will be the same by posts of some users by coincidence. Also, don't post on 50+ pages thread having common questions and repeated answers.

[simplefisk]

Guide on Plagiarism and how to avoid it

LOL, I suspect you were trying to find out if the OP had plagiarized the content he posted?  I'm guilty of the same thing.

But really, why the fuck is a thread like this even needed here?  Is plagiarism that common on this site?

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

This is indeed educative. Thanks allot because at least I now know how to insert a quote in a text. I have been find it very difficult to do that, but your article just solve my problem. So I am indeed happy to be in this forum, and to learn from insightful experience member like you Sir. Thanks

[GeorgeJohn]

Plagiarism is actually stealing or taking from someone's else's projects, without full approval of the original owner of the work.....been one's self and discipline his/her self over taking a work that doesn't belongs to you....been creative by reading a vast amount of books from different sources, taking from the author's work and referencing him ain't bad as it shows we had an idea from he's work.
The Consequences cannot be avoided after Plagiarism, definitely those involved in this will definitely be caught and be penalized....so as to avoid been caught we should all venture into making up our own creative works without trying to steal from anyone.

[libert19]

It's more like how to cite someone else's work, regarding 'avoiding' plagiarism, there is simple formula, if you didn't create it, it's not yours.