Plagiarism is “the process or practice of using another person’s ideas or work and pretending that it is your own.” While Paraphrasing means “to state something written or spoken in different words, especially in a shorter and simpler form to make the meaning clearer.” Cambridge Dictionary
Therefore, we can assume that paraphrasing cures plagiarism or at least reduces similarity percent. In the following Q&As, we are going to know more about both terms and how to deal with them.
- Why is plagiarism so important?
Citing your sources allows you to: acknowledge your dependence on another person’s ideas or words, and to distinguish clearly your own work from that of your sources.
- How do I check for plagiarism?
Turnitin and Ithenticate are two reliable softwares that detect plagiarism in your text and could also check for other writing issues. They can catch plagiarism from ProQuest databases and over 16 billion web pages.
- What are tips to avoid plagiarism?
- Read other people’s work well, understand it the describe it (using references) with your own vocabulary.
- Paraphrase other people’s results or ideas.
- Use a range of sources.
- Develop your own style.
- Use quotation marks.
- How much plagiarism is allowed in a research paper?
Usually, a plagiarism percent below 15% is acceptable by the journals, some journals require only 10% and all journals do not accept text similarity of more than 20%.
- How do you paraphrase text?
- Read the original source carefully.
- Identify the main points and keywords.
- Paraphrase and rewrite it in your own vocabulary and style.
- Review your paraphrase to check if it accurately reflects the meaning of the original text or not.
- Some scholars summarize paraphrasing steps in the 4 R’s: Read, Restate, Recheck, and Repair.
Adopted from: https://library.ncu.edu/writingresources/paraphrase
- What is an example of paraphrasing?
Example #1
Original: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide.
Paraphrase: The second greatest cause of cancer-related fatalities around the globe is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Example #2
Original: Stimulation of effective anti-tumor immune response with little to no patient toxicity is critical for the development of effective immunotherapies for cancer.
Paraphrase: The creation of efficient immunotherapies for cancer depends on the stimulation of an efficient anti-tumor immune response with little or no harm to patients
Example #3
Original: The principal causative factors of liver fibrosis in developing countries are viral or parasitic infections, while in developed countries, the frequent cause is excessive alcohol consumption.
Paraphrase: Infection from viruses or parasites is the main cause of liver fibrosis in developing nations, but excessive alcohol intake is the common cause in industrialized nations.