In academic writing, students are required to produce original papers that are free from any copy-pasted text. This is because such work is considered plagiarized and it is an academic crime. Plagiarism is the act of taking another person’s work or ideas and passing it on as your own.
While copy-pasting without acknowledging the author of the original text is a serious academic crime, there are ways that you can copy and paste without plagiarizing. This article will explore the various ways to copy-paste without facing academic consequences.
How to Copy and Paste Without Plagiarizing
Copying content from a source and representing it as yours is not a good idea as it constitutes plagiarism. However, if you use good methods, and avoid quick fixes, you can copy well without it being termed as plagiarism.
The best way to copy and paste content without plagiarizing is by hiring a writer to rewrite the work afresh, paraphrasing the contents well, citing the sources, and referencing them on a reference page.
You can also add your points, take screenshots, or better yet use quotation marks to represent someone’s content without plagiarizing.
1. Hire a Writer
Hiring a professional writer is the best method of getting your academic papers done without writing anything. All you need to do is pay a professional writer and wait for your paper to be written.
Various online platforms offer professional essay writing services. The writers write your papers from scratch, meaning that no content is plagiarized or copy-pasted.
2. Paraphrase
If you are have not hired a professional writer and you are writing your paper, the best method you can use to avoid copy-pasting and therefore plagiarism is to paraphrase the original content.
Paraphrasing can be regarded as the act of rewriting the original text using your own words.
The rewritten work must maintain the same meaning as the original text.
The difference is that the two will not use similar phrases or sentence structures.
To paraphrase well, make sure that you have read and understood the source of your information.
You cannot paraphrase something that you haven’t understood. The second thing you should do is to identify the key points and the information used to support those points.
This will help you relate your claims to the original text. Thirdly, you should carefully rewrite the text in your own words. Finally, make sure that you cite the source using the proper APA or MLA in-text style.
3. Cite Sources Well
As we have noted, any idea presented in your paper that does not belong to you should be cited. Citing gives credit to the owner or author of the original text.
This not only reduces the chances of your paper being plagiarized but also shows that you are a competent writer who has conducted thorough research.
Citing should be done within the body of your paper, or the section of your paper where to present your claims and supporting arguments.
It should be in the form of in-text citations where you cite the source of your information at the end of the sentence that contains the borrowed knowledge.
Be careful not to plagiarize the citations that you get from the source, as this will be termed copy-pasting. Therefore, you should cite your sources well using the appropriate academic format such as APA or MLA.
4. Include a Reference Page
When you cite your sources well, also make sure that you have included a full reference to that citation. Full references are located on a separate last page of your paper. This page is titled “references” in an APA formatted paper or “works cited” in an MLA formatted paper.
In-text citations within the body of your paper should contain the author’s surname and the year of publication for the APA formatted paper, for example, (Jackson, 2021).
When it comes to MLA, the in-text citation should contain the surname of the author and the page where you got the information, for example, (Jackson 12)
5. Use Quotes
If you wish to directly copy and paste the original text into your paper, the safest way to do this without plagiarizing the work is to put the text within quotation marks. Quoting means that you acknowledge that the ideas do not belong to you.
To effectively quote another author’s text, make sure that you have also italicized the text and end the quoted text by adding an in-text citation.
In APA, a quote can look like this: “30% of road accidents are caused by drunk driving” (Jackson, 2021). In MLA, it will look like this: “30% of road accidents are caused by drunk driving” (Jackson 12).
6. Take a Screenshot
If your instructor allows you to do so, you can also take a screenshot of the original text and attach it to your paper.
This is a way to directly copy someone’s ideas into your work without risking plagiarism.
However, when you take a screenshot, make sure to include a caption below the image to indicate its source.
If the source is from a webpage, you can include a direct link to the source below the image.
If it is from a book or a journal, you can include an in-text citation below the image.
7. Add your Own Opinion
Including personal opinions is also a good method of avoiding plagiarism. This is because personal opinions are original and they will be unique to you. The written text will not be similar to any other text and therefore your paper will not be plagiarized.
However, when including personal opinions, make sure that you present relevant ideas that complement the main claims of your paper.
Avoid adding useless opinions into your paper so that you can fill up the pages. Your opinion should add value to your overall arguments.
8. Just Copy the Points
Finally, you can just copy-paste the main points to avoid plagiarism. You do not need to copy everything. You only need to identify the main points presented by the author and copy them.
However, make sure that the copied points do not use the same phrases or sentence structure as the original text. Copy the main points wisely.
9. Get Inspiration only
This is the best way to copy without plagiarizing someone else’s work. It is the ultimate tact of writing and doing research. It simply involves getting inspired by another person’s work.
But be careful not to take his or her points. The idea here is to know the difference between inspiration and plagiarism and learn to get ideas without copying.
This strategy can work well when you are giving a speech. It is a nice way of avoiding incremental plagiarism and using other people’s ideas, but wisely.
Tips on How to Plagiarize Without Getting Caught
1. Avoid Common Words or Clichés
To plagiarize without getting caught, avoid using common words or clichés.
This is because common words or clichés will be used by many authors hence your paper’s text will be similar to other papers.
There are plagiarism detecting tools used to match the similarity of submitted papers to those within their databases.
If you overuse common words and clichés, there’re is a great possibility that your paper will have a high similarity score to other papers. Therefore, avoid using such words.
2. Look at the Points/Topic from Another Perspective
You can also look at the points/topic from a different perspective to ensure that whatever you write will not be similar to other papers. Using a different perspective will ensure that your ideas are unique.
You will also impress your instructor because it will prove that you are a good researcher who is afraid of thinking outside the box.
3. Use Few Quotes
As noted, there are plagiarism checking tools that are used to detect your paper’s similarity to existing papers. This means that any text within your paper will be compared to other papers.
As such, if you use many quotes, the similarity index will increase, hence your paper will have a high plagiarism score. Minimize the usage of direct quotes.
4. Use Synonyms
If you wish to plagiarize or copy-paste text and you do not wish to be caught, it is best to replace some of the original words with their synonyms.
This will ensure that your text maintains the same meaning as the original text without necessarily being similar to the original. Most words have synonyms hence it would be easy to do this.
5. Use Correct Citation Styles Like APA, MLA, etc.
Adding an appropriate citation is the best method to avoid plagiarism. In-text citations should be added at the end of the sentence where you have copied ideas.
Such citations should be in APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, or Harvard depending on the instructions. But they help from changing plagiarism from a bad thing to a good thing that helps in backing up your ideas.
It is always good to cite when doing research. Read more about how to write a term paper without plagiarism and know the need for such referencing.
FAQs
Can you copy paste a bibliography?
The answer to this question is yes. You can copy-paste a bibliography without risking plagiarism. However, make sure that the bibliography is relevant to the in-text citations within your paper. It would not make sense to copy-paste unrelated bibliography.
How to copy an essay and make it your own?
The best way to copy an essay and make it your own is to paraphrase everything. You can decide to rewrite every sentence while retaining the same meaning. Once you rewrite an essay, it will appear original.
How to get away with copying and pasting?
The best way to get away with copying and pasting is to put the copy-pasted tested into quotation marks and including a citation at the end. The text should also be italicized to show that it is not part of your ideas.
Can you copy and paste if you cite?
Yes. You can copy and paste if you cite because you will need to provide the copy-pasted ideas and the author(s) of the source. Any copy-pasted text should always be followed by a citation.
How to copy and paste citations in word?
To copy and paste citations in word, you will need to highlight the desired text and left-click your mouse. You will be provided with options on what to do with the highlighted text. Click the copy option. Go to your word document and right-click on the position you wish to paste it. Click the paste option.
Joseph is a freelance journalist and a part-time writer with a particular interest in the gig economy. He writes about schooling, college life, and changing trends in education. When not writing, Joseph is hiking or playing chess.