Achievement 3 by @jmac01 Task: Content Etiquette

Good day to everyone in this wonderful community, I am happy am progressing with the achievement task. Honestly, I have taken time to read through some write-ups made by different people, and i must say that, I love the way publications are being structured here, with each one being unique to the ideas and perspective of the individual that came up with the writeup. I appreciate @cryptokannon for handling this achievement task on the topic of plagiarism. A lot of people are guilty of plagiarism in one way or the other, with a larger number not knowing that what they are doing is very wrong. Generally, people believe that every knowledge we have today, we get it from somewhere but they really don’t know how important it is to reference the source of your information or knowledge especially when you are passing that information in a formal or public setting. It is very important for every member of this community to carefully read and understand the rules and regulations of this platform as some claim not to know how to put up references in their work.

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I will be discussing plagiarism under various headings, which are:
1). What is Plagiarism?
2). Various forms/Types of Plagiarism
3). The consequences of involving in Plagiarism
4). How to avoid plagiarism

WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
Plagiarism is the act of taking one's work and presenting it as yours without taking permission from the original author or even acknowledging the author by citation or referencing. It spreads across every form of published works and even unpublished ideas given by people in various institutions, communities, and in all walks of life. Plagiarism can be unintentional, deliberate, or even occur as a result of carelessness on the part of the person being found guilty of it.

"Plagarism, Ghostwriting, as well as scientific fraud, are being reported daily by the news media. This creates clear evidence that misconduct has become one of the omnipresent and widespread evil, especially in scientific research.’’ Heinrich Rohrer source

FORMS/TYPES OF PLAGIARISM
There are various types of plagiarism, ranging from the very serious ones that can be tagged as an act of theft, to the minor ones. Though in general, no level of plagiarism is justifiable.
Some of the common ones include:

Direct Plagiarism: This is a form of plagiarism in which a writer copies a sentence or as much as a paragraph from another author’s work; word for word; and adds it to his work making it look as if it is his own, without referencing him or even citing it in quotation marks.

Accidental Plagiarism: This type of plagiarism occurs as a mistake or neglect on the side of the writer. That is why writers are advised to keep track of the sources they research from so as not to omit any during referencing.

Inaccurate Autoship: This happens when two or more authors put ideas together to make up an article and one of them does not get credit for it at the end making it seems like all the ideas come from just the other person. This type of plagiarism violates the research code of conduct and is punishable.

Self or Auto Plagiarism: This is when an author takes a significant level of information from his or her previous work and uses it to make up his current work.

Complete Plagiarism: This is the most offensive type of plagiarism whereby a person takes the complete work of another author and submits it as his / her own. This is seen as theft and perpetrators of this kind of plagiarism are usually punished severely for it.

CONSEQUENCES OF PLAGARISM
Plagiarism is frowned at in every institution where works are being published and each institution has strict measures they have put in place for anyone who involves in plagiarizing other people works. Among the numerous punishments one could be given, a few of them include:

1). Rejection of your paper or publication
2). Reduction of your grade/score
3). Failing the course
4). Receiving suspension or even expulsion depending on the gravity of the plagiarism
5). Being subjected to other disciplinary actions that could be very embarrassing
It is best not to partake in such an act because once you are caught, you could be blacklisted, which leaves a clause on your academic or professional portfolio and can greatly affect your career in the future.

HOW TO AVOID PLAGIARISM

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The following steps can help you avoid plagiarism if you apply them when working on any article or publication.

1. Make sure you write down every source you consulted and picked points from in the course of your research. This is very important to do as most people who prefer to do this at the end of their work end up forgetting to reference some of the sources they consulted.
2. Make the words, ideas, or whatever you borrowed to add to your work stand out by paraphrasing them before adding yours. Don’t just add them together.
3. Do well to acknowledge the original author both in the citation and in the reference list at the end of your work,
4. Make sure you pass your work through a plagiarism checker before publishing it, just in case.

”When you have the wit of your own. It’s a pleasure to credit others for theirs,” Criss Jami source

”I have read and understood the Steemit Etiquette on Steemit Community and will do my best to embrace them”