How Much Plagiarism Is Allowed In Assignments?
Plagiarism is the most dreadful nightmare for every student and researcher. It is the last thing they want to deal with in their academic careers. The fear of falling into plagiarism cases is due to the penalties and loss of reputation they have to face.
Academic writings like theses, dissertations, and term papers are all submitted occasionally, while assignments need to be submitted routinely. Hence, it is crucial to maintain the originality of these academic works.
However, sometimes a question arises: Is there any plagiarism percentage allowed? If you are wondering the same, this article is for you. It will answer how much plagiarism is allowed in assignments and deliver other valuable information regarding plagiarism.
What Do You Mean By Plagiarism
Plagiarism is copying others’ words or ideas and presenting them as your own. As a result, claiming others’ work without attribution to them is unethical and falls under academic dishonesty.
Plagiarism is seriously disregarded in the educational environment and considered a form of cheating. If a researcher, scholar, or pupil incorporates already published work into their assignments and doesn’t cite the sources, this is a plagiarism case.
However, plagiarism isn’t always intentional and may result from negligence or overconfidence. For instance, a student may have wrongly interchanged the citation of two sources without verifying them, which may also cause plagiarism. Hence, it can be said that a plagiarist may not always commit plagiarism deliberately.
Different Types of Plagiarism
As mentioned above, plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. However, these are significant types of plagiarism and depend on the individual’s intentions. Plagiarism is further subdivided into various forms depending on the copying or stealing approach. For instance, if the learner replicates their own words from a previous assignment without citing it as a source, this is regarded as self-plagiarism. Other prominent plagiarism types include.
-
Verbatim Plagiarism
Verbatim plagiarism is the most common type of plagiarism and is sometimes also known as verbatim plagiarism. Direct plagiarism involves copying others in the exact manner wordy by word. This type of stealing involves the copy-paste culture, where all sentences or paragraphs are copied and pasted into the plagiarists’ assignment.
-
Aggregate Plagiarism
Consider aggregate plagiarism a replica of direct plagiarism, where word-to-word copying occurs. However, the difference lies in the presence of citations. Verbatim plagiarism is carried out by claiming other words as your own. In the aggregate, the plagiarist includes the citations of the stolen words.
-
Patchwork Plagiarism
As depicted by the name, patchwork plagiarism, also known as mosaic plagiarism, is done by stealing others’ words in combination with a few words on your own. During patchwork, the plagiarist copies the main idea, sentence structure, and writing style by tweaking some changes. They did this either by replacing synonyms or rewriting a few sentences.
How Much Plagiarism Is Allowed in Assignments?
When discussing academic plagiarism, it is vital to know the allowed percentage. Because after all preventive measures to craft unique and plagiarism-free writing, plagiarism exists. However, there is no universally accepted percentage as the institute decides it. Your high school, grad college, or university eventually set the criteria; thus, each has diverse percentage values.
Moreover, the allowed plagiarism percentage also varies with the academic writing you submit. For instance, in a master’s thesis, the allowed percentage is 20%, while for a doctoral dissertation, it should not be more than 10%. Now, come to the subject matter: How much plagiarism is allowed in assignments?
First of all, as per the previous statement, your institute is the sole body with the authority to decide allowed limits. But here, the straightforward question is, “0” or “zero.” Your assignments should be wholly plagiarism-free and should not contain even 1% of plagiarism.
If you aim for zero plagiarism, it will be easy to avoid plagiarism. However, if you relax and think 10%, 20%, or 25% is the allowed limit, chances are you will commit negligence and ultimately fall into higher plagiarism percentages.
How to Know Plagiarism Percentage in Assignments
Now that you have learned about plagiarism, its various types, and allowed percentages, the question arises: How will you evaluate your assignments for plagiarism? Or how do you understand the plagiarism percentages of assignments before submitting them to the university portal or Turnitin?
The plagiarism percentage can be identified with online tools called plagiarism checkers. These tools are used to check plagiarism online and identify sentences in an assignment that resemble already published writings.
Use a proficient and free plagiarism checker to know what plagiarism percentage exists in your assignment.
It will quickly scan your provided assignments and begin textual and contextual analysis. The analysis then compares all available resources and the submitted text.
The extent to which your assignment resembles published sources is then presented in the plagiarism results as a percentage. Hence, you can quickly learn about your assignments’ plagiarism score using a plagiarism detector.
How to Avoid Plagiarism
Plagiarism can be a grave issue for students and brings a range of penalties, from failing the course to expulsion from the institute. Therefore, there is a need to avoid instances of plagiarism to protect your credibility and save yourself from any allegations. The methods discussed below can help you evade plagiarism and submit original assignments.
-
Avoiding Direct Quotes
Using direct quotes and not considering this as plagiarism is a common misconception among learners. Directly including quotes without restating them in your own words, even if you put them in quotation marks, increases your plagiarism percentage. Not all plagiarism checkers consider the quoted text as a reference text; hence, to avoid any ambiguity, always ensure that the quotes are paraphrased and that you don’t forget to cite them.
-
Citing and Referencing
The primary cause of accidental plagiarism is missed or wrong citations and problems while referencing. Sometimes, scholars forget to cite the source, don’t have the correct citation for the source, replace it accidentally with another reference, or fail to write in the proper style. Although not deliberately done, this ultimately causes plagiarism in their work. Therefore, always recheck your references and citations and ensure each one is correctly written and in the designated style.
-
Leveraging Rewriting Techniques
Copy-paste culture is the primary culprit behind instances of plagiarism. Irrespective of the fact that you have quoted the statement or mentioned the source, you still fall under plagiarism. Therefore, to keep plagiarism at par, utilize rewriting strategies and present your academic work uniquely. These include infusing unique and meaningful synonyms, restructuring sentences, altering the delivery of voices, and playing with direct and indirect statements. Using the best strategy accordingly, you can avoid plagiarism through rewriting practices.
Concluding Observations
Plagiarism is a hot topic in academic settings, and multiple questions arise related to it. The article above answers a critical question about the plagiarism percentage allowed in assignments. Furthermore, it has also discussed other necessary topics. Hope you find this information valuable.
