This in-depth article explains how incremental plagiarism can ruin your academic career and the ways you can avoid it. Read the article till the end and adopt the mentioned tips to make your dissertation plagiarism-free.
Plagiarism is often thought of as copying entire texts, but incremental plagiarism is a more deceptive and dangerous threat. It occurs when students incorporate small portions of text, ideas, or phrases from multiple sources without proper citation, gradually blending them into their work. This subtle form of plagiarism often goes unnoticed at first, but over time, it undermines academic integrity and credibility.
Many students commit incremental plagiarism unintentionally, assuming that borrowing a few words or ideas without attribution is harmless. However, academic institutions take it seriously, imposing penalties ranging from grade deductions to expulsion. According to Long Island University, a survey indicated that 36% of students faced plagiarism issues, highlighting the growing concern, especially for those working on dissertations.
In this article, we’ll explore incremental plagiarism in detail, providing practical strategies to recognise and avoid it. Let’s dive in!
Top 7 Ways to Avoid Incremental Plagiarism in Your Academic Career
Incremental plagiarism can significantly impact your grades and undermine your confidence when defending your dissertation before internal and external supervisors. Ensuring your dissertation is plagiarism-free isn’t optional it’s essential. Yet, many students struggle with incremental plagiarism due to a lack of proper support and guidance.
If you face this issue, seeking assistance from dissertation writing services can be a game-changer. However, if you prefer a do-it-yourself, here are seven effective ways to help you eliminate plagiarism and maintain academic integrity in your dissertation.
- Redefine Your Researching Style
Most students and researchers face penalties due to their research style. When they collect data about the topic during their research, they don’t attentively write everything down. As a result, they forget to credit the writer of a specific idea or quote when compiling their dissertation. This leads to incremental plagiarism and decreases its impact.
Here are a few measures essential to be taken during the research process:
- Always gather information from sources such as research journals. As the third-party data is sometimes misleading.
- Write the names of the books and authors, along with their quotes.
- Add references to the list to make the later process smooth.
- Ensure to put quotation marks around sentences that belong to another writer.
Redefining your research style will enable you to organise the process, reducing the risk of this unusual plagiarism.
- Revisit Your Referencing Style
There must be a referencing style you will follow when writing a dissertation. Collecting your data according to this style is a wise step to make your content plagiarism-free. Usually, institutes have different requirements regarding referencing styles. For instance, some schools prefer the Harvard style, and others ask students to follow MLA.
Following the requirements, you will collect the referencing data. According to the University of Sheffield, in the Harvard Style, you will need to mention the author’s last name and year. Similarly, you will include the surname of the writer and the page number in the MLA style. If you follow any of the above-mentioned styles, it’s best to collect the data according to their requirements.
Consider these steps and forget about incremental plagiarism:
- Learn About Requirements: First, know about the requirements related to the referencing styles and act accordingly.
- Collect Data Wisely: Research journals will follow a referencing style similar to yours. Collecting information from them will help you later when compiling the article.
- Proper Citation: Ensure citations are easy for everyone to learn about the original writer.
- Avoid the Trap of Paraphrasing
The act of incremental plagiarism is linked to multiple points, such as paraphrasing and not giving credit where it is due. Paraphrasing is as bad as plagiarism and is an easy trap for many to fall into. Always remember that there is no fundamental difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing. Yet, most writers cut corners and follow this short strategy. However, this approach can raise serious questions about your credibility and genuineness.
Below is an example of paraphrasing that you will need to avoid at any cost!
- Original Quote: “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”. Malcolm X is the author of this quote, who was a human rights activist.
- Paraphrased Text: The future belongs to individuals who get ready for it with the latest education and conquer the world. Think of it as a passport that will open doors to new opportunities in other countries.
Did you check the difference between the original one and the paraphrased one? They don’t have similar words. It means paraphrasing may deceive plagiarism detector tools. But the question of ethical consideration will remain.
Pro Tip: Paraphrasing the quotation of another writer in your own words isn’t only unethical but can demolish your credibility. So, don’t consider paraphrasing an option, and always give the credit where it belongs.
- Don’t Use Generative AI Tools
AI tools are no longer a buzzword. Most students and writers are utilising these tools and have completely put their eggs in one basket. They create dissertations, research papers, or other pieces of writing with these tools without extra effort. This approach raises concerns regarding originality and credibility. Usually, these tools paraphrase the available content on different search engines and generate an answer for the user.
Whether original or dependent on generative AI tools, it’s yours. If you utilise them to outline or write your research paper, the chances are high that genuineness will be missing. The well-reputed scholars believe these tools are inadequate for students because they don’t let them enhance their creativity and productivity.
Saying goodbye to your dependability is the only answer to how to avoid incremental plagiarism. Otherwise, AI detector tools will detect plagiarised content, and you may face a penalty. Will you write your dissertation initially or depend on AI tools to derail your academic journey?
- Don’t Compromise Proofreading
Some students don’t strictly check their written work before submitting it. This habit allows many aspects to go unchecked, including poor structure or no citation at all. Let us break this phenomenon out!
Many students follow the approach that they will add references to quotes after completing the dissertation. They forget to add these references after the completion, leading to incremental plagiarism. Make sure that you include all the references during the first go. Proofreading is only for detecting minor flaws and citing quotes properly if you accidentally forget about them.
During proofreading, you can check these things:
- Proper citation of all quotes
- Correct attribution to the original author
- Detailed Referencing at the end
Pro Tip: Always proofread your dissertation after several days of its completion. The gap will help you detect referencing issues that could have been overlooked if proofread immediately.
- Don’t Opt for Global Patchwork
Global patchwork and incremental plagiarism are linked with each other. Sometimes, students and researchers take a study in another language and translate it into their native language. They present it as their original work, known as global patchwork.
On the other hand, they copy and paste some of the sections and don’t attribute them to the writer. We call it incremental plagiarism. Both approaches don’t have moral grounds. Following either of them can lead to destroying your academic future.
Copying or translating others’ work may seem easy and lucrative. However, following it will not polish your academic grades. Stay away from such shortcuts and always focus on producing original and authentic content.
- Always Make Your Dissertation Go Through Plagiarism Checkers
Multiple tools can be effective in catching plagiarism of any type. Turnitin is the best incremental plagiarism checker that can detect unattributed text perfectly.
You can also utilise other tools such as Grammarly and ProWritingAid to check if there is plagiarism in your thesis. Students don’t make their written pieces go through plagiarism detectors and submit them. Remember that this approach can destroy your reputation in front of your supervisor or the committee.
These tools help you identify the text similar to others and detect the content that needs to be properly attributed. So, make your dissertation or research paper error-free with these tools and make it original and authentic.
Incremental Plagiarism Examples
This section of the article includes some examples that elaborate on incremental plagiarism and include the areas where it can be present. You will find an answer to the question which example describes incremental plagiarism. Take a look at it and learn about the pieces of writing where there can be traces of incremental plagiarism.
Image Source: Grammark
Image Source: ContentDetector
What Is Incremental Plagiarism?
Incremental plagiarism happens when you include quotes, excerpts, and passages without crediting the original writer. It will still be called plagiarism even when one or two unattributed sentences exist. Usually, incremental plagiarism occurs when students forget about a specific quote or sentence. This forgetfulness can make your whole writing questionable. Whether you mention a quote or passage, ensure every sentence is carefully cited to make your dissertation incremental plagiarism-free.
What Is the Difference Between Patchwork and Incremental Plagiarism?
Patchwork refers to the approach when students or researchers gather sentences from multiple resources and include them in their work. Students also paraphrase information or quotes in patchwork. On the other hand, incremental plagiarism involves two actions: copying and pasting without citation.
Patchwork and incremental plagiarism are both unethical ways to complete a dissertation. These poor strategies can derail your academic journey and may lead to penalties. Be original and always cite quotes and other ideas to make your paper genuine and authentic.
What Are the 4 Common Types of Plagiarism?
Stealing quotes, ideas, research, and thoughts and passing them off as your own is known as plagiarism. Plagiarism is divided into four types, global plagiarism, paraphrasing plagiarism, patchwork plagiarism, and incremental plagiarism.
Global plagiarism is usually intentional where a researcher steals an idea and presents it as their own. Global plagiarism can have many forms, like using another’s work entirely. Paraphrasing plagiarism is when a researcher keeps the idea as is but changes its wording. The idea behind paraphrasing is to deceive plagiarism detector tools.
In patchwork plagiarism, a researcher gathers sentences or quotes from multiple resources and adds them to their work without citation. Incremental plagiarism refers to a phenomenon when a student uses a quote without attributing it to the original writer.
What Is the 5-word Rule for Plagiarism?
The 5-word rule for plagiarism is simple yet the most difficult one according to researchers. This rule says that if five consecutive words in your sentence belong to another person’s work, then it is plagiarism. Some academic professionals believe that this rule is a must to be followed. They argue that originality and creativity will suffer among students and researchers without it.
Several tools are specifically designed for that rule, such as Turnitin. It detects similar words in a sentence and marks them as plagiarised. Checking your dissertation in the light of the 5-word rule will help you make your academic journey smooth.
Final Words
Incremental plagiarism can be a below-the-surface issue for your academic journey. It can make your research paper or dissertation questionable and sound copied. Therefore, avoiding incremental plagiarism is essential for your academic success. We have compiled a detailed list that can guide you to overcome this issue.
In case you are struggling with how to remove incremental plagiarism or complete a dissertation effectively, you can contact top-rated dissertation writing agency. Getting such dissertation services will allow you to complete your thesis without any hassle. So, make your academic journey a success with these services. Authenticity and proper citation protect your academic integrity and reflect your hard work and dedication.
Author Bio
Oscar Wilde is an expert dissertation writer specialising in plagiarism prevention and thesis guidance. With extensive experience in research ethics, he helps students maintain academic integrity through proper citation and original writing.
