Scholarships are very important nowadays if you are someone who wants to pursue higher education. Due to inflation, the cost of education has also risen. It is very expensive to go to college, and many students have to pick up multiple part-time jobs to afford it.
Scholarships ease that burden, but they are limited as well. So, qualifying for a scholarship has become quite competitive. So, in order to get them, students have to write scholarship essays that basically justify why they need the money.
There is one huge mistake that you can make while writing essay committing plagiarism. Plagiarism is not tolerated and it can result in your application getting rejected. That is why it is important that you never indulge in plagiarism and avoid it to the best of your ability.
Methods of Avoiding Plagiarism in Essays
These are some methods that you can apply to write unique essays and not indulge in plagiarism.
1. Do Ample Research
The first step in avoiding plagiarism is to take the time to research your essay topic. By researching, you gain a lot of information. This gives you a very large pool of ideas that you can pull from.
The more information you have the less chance of plagiarism there is. People only resort to plagiarism if they don’t have enough knowledge or data to write. So, they try the easy way out and copy someone else.
One more thing you need to keep in mind is that research from many sources instead of a few. This ensures that you do not get affected by bias.
2. Cite Your Sources
If you have to use some text or ideas from another person, then be sure to credit them. To credit someone in writing requires you to cite the source.
Citations are basically small snippets of information that tell who the author is and what publication that information was taken from.
By giving credit, you are absolved of plagiarism. The definition of plagiarism is “using another person’s work and claiming it as your own.” If you don’t claim it, then you aren’t committing plagiarism.
3. Check for Accidental Plagiarism
No matter how good you may be, there is always a chance that you have unwittingly copied someone else. Of course, that is not your fault. There is just too much content out there and it is very much possible that two people wrote something in the same way.
The bad thing is that accidental plagiarism is not distinguishable from intentional plagiarism. So, it is penalized the same way.
To avoid this, you have to check your work with a tool. A plagiarism checker online is well suited for this task. Plagiarism checkers can compare your essay against many online sources and pinpoint any duplication present.
With the help of plagiarism-checking tools, you can ensure that there is no accidental duplication in your work. Always do this whenever you have to write a scholarship essay. This will prevent your application from getting rejected on the basis of plagiarism.
4. Paraphrase Where Necessary
Sometimes, plagiarism is unavoidable. As we mentioned previously, accidental plagiarism is a thing that can occur coincidentally.
After detecting it comes the process of removing it. The best way to remove plagiarism is to either cite the source, remove the plagiarized part, or paraphrase it.
With paraphrasing, you can make the duplicated part look completely different while still retaining its meaning.
If you are not confident in your own ability to paraphrase effectively, then you can always rely on a paraphrasing tool.
These are online tools that rephrase and reword the given text automatically. A paragraph rephrase can be done with their help.
A paraphrasing tool can also help you improve other weak sentences in your essay, so, it is a good idea to use it whenever needed.
5. Incorporate Your Own Experiences in the Essay
One way to make your essay unique is to write about your own experiences (that are relevant to the topic).
Every person in the world is unique, and that is why their experiences are also unique. Even if two people were placed in the same situation their experiences will be different because of their unique perspectives and outlooks on life,
So, incorporating your experiences is a good way of avoiding plagiarism and keeping your essay unique.
Conclusion
These were a few ways to avoid plagiarism in your scholarship essay. It is important for you to write completely unique essays because that is what the scholarship committee requires. They are not keen on reading plagiarized stuff.
That’s why it is necessary to avoid duplication when writing a scholarship essay.
