Teachers and professors often mention a specific level of plagiarism that the student must not exceed in order to submit a valid assignment. What is this plagiarism? Earlier limited to higher education, plagiarism is now a common content flaw in all educational levels and work domains. It is basically the presentation of somebody else’s work as your own. It may happen intentionally, accidentally or due to citation errors. Here, we are going to explain about how to avoid plagiarism issues that both the writer and supervisor must look out for.
Types of Plagiarism to Look out for
Verbatim plagiarism
It is the most uncommon of the 10 most common types of plagiarism. Here, the writer directly copy-pastes text from a different source. In addition, the writer claims it as his/her own work and provides no citation. As it is easily detected, most people avoid are smart enough to avoid it. Some may delete or change a couple of words here and there. But it is still verbatim plagiarism if a majority of the content resembles the original document.
Paraphrasing plagiarism
Moving on to the most common plagiarism type, paraphrasing involves the rephrasing of a part of a text. The writer presents it without citation. However, rewriting existing content does not make it original, so, it must be avoided. Even a translation without citation is plagiarism. Therefore, be careful before claiming anything as your own.
Source-based Plagiarism
This occurs when a student or researcher references incorrect or fake sources. Writers often use it misleading citations to camouflage copied content. But instead of doing this, they must focus on how to avoid plagiarism. It also includes cases where secondary sources are not cited and the document only includes primary sources.
Data Fabrication And Falsification
When writers manipulate data and research findings, it is data fabrication. Meanwhile, data falsification is modifying or omitting data to create a false impression. The consequences of this type of plagiarism are severe. This is because research data has adverse effects on various sections of readers.
Accidental Plagiarism
Of the 10 most common types of plagiarism, accidental plagiarism, as the word reflects is unintentional. It occurs when writers unknowingly use similar words or sentences without citation. So, they must be attentive and ensure to check their plagiarism rate before submission, Lack of intent does not make it any less severe so writers must be aware.
Mosaic plagiarism
Another commonly used plagiarism technique is mosaic plagiarism. Here, the writer smartly copies parts of content from different sources to create new text. They may or may not rephrase the passages. It requires more effort but is still detectable. Hence, it also must be avoided.
Borrowed Plagiarism
Easiest plagiarism is to borrow from friends or seniors. Smartly presenting previously submitted work to a different professor is common among students. However, it must be avoided as it not only belittles the effort of the original writer but also prevents you from learning something new.
Find And Replace Plagiarism
Extremely common in web content, here writers change the most common keywords and phrases without making any changes in the rest of the content body. People do this to ensure higher readability but it greatly reduces credibility of the writer and the website. Readers often point out the similarities which is embarrassing.
Aggregator Plagiarism
This type of plagiarism is seen in documents that contain all the correct citations but includes no original content at all. Although the writer has included the sources it is still plagiarism. It is simply the aggregation of information, not writing.
Self-plagiarism
Often not known, but reusing one’s own work from previous submissions is also plagiarism. Getting double credits for the same information is dishonest. Paraphrasing your own content with citations is agreeable but only to an extent.
How To Avoid Plagiarism?
After reading through the different types, if you are wondering how to avoid plagiarism, we have listed out a few ways of doing that.

- Always Quote original sources by putting copied text & include in-text citation
- One must Understand the original document before drawing insights from it
- Do not copy-paste anything
- Read multiple articles and assimilate your ideas in your own words
- Cite Books, Journals, Websites; all in the accepted APA/MLA styles
- One should Include the accessed date & URL in case of online sources
- Always include a “reference” section
- Make it ensure to include a good portion of original content
- Cross verify citations before submitting
- Test the reports from proofreading services to ensure credibility
Avoiding plagiarism is the basis of writing original content. Ensure that your content does not fall prey to any of the 10 most common plagiarism types mentioned here. Adopt the practices listed above and become an expert on how to avoid plagiarism.