Q&A: What You Should Know About Avoiding Plagiarizing

December 30, 2019 by davidsimmonsphd, posted in Writing Tips

Often times, you see situations ironical in their very nature. A few days ago, I came across a news on internet in which a student was found guilty of plagiarism. The irony is that this student was involved in this illegal activity while writing his law essay. How ironical that you are preaching about the consequences of committing actions prohibited within a society in your law essay and found guilty of plagiarism yourself.

Plagiarism is the theft of other people’s works, ideas and research and presenting it as your own. This is considered a serious academic offence. Most students are seen confused about the phenomenon and they ask everyone what exactly plagiarism is. They have a lot of questions about this immoral activity.

This is the exact reason why this article is written. Today, I am going to answer the questions that are often heard about plagiarism.

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the act of stealing other people’s ideas, publications, language, expressions or thoughts and presenting them as your own. It is a widely discussed phenomenon in academia as it is considered a serious academic offence.

However, this is not the only way you can plagiarize in your work. You are guilty of plagiarizing as well if you forget to add quotation marks while presenting someone else’s words.

Similarly, if you fail to provide proper references to the works of others used by yourself in a written piece of paper, the very act is also considered as plagiarism.

And finally, the subtlest form of plagiarism is paraphrasing others’ works by only changing a few words so that it looks identical to the original work. Plagiarism can either be intentional or unintentional, but in both cases it has consequences.

What happens when I Plagiarize Unintentionally?

Unintentional plagiarism is when you fail to cite the original source properly. You are always required to properly refer the works to their authors to avoid plagiarism. However if you fail to do so properly, for example you did not give the in-text reference but included it in the Work Cited list, it can be dealt with a little leniency by your organization.

Especially if you are a first year student in your university, the professor might be forgiving and you may get away with it. But in a PhD dissertation, even an unintentional plagiarism can lead to the failure of course.

Similarly, an unintentional plagiarism in a paper written for publication purposes is considered an offence. And you may face severe consequences for making this mistake.

How will my Professor know if I intentionally plagiarize?

Some students think that they are smart enough to deceive their teachers without getting caught. However, this assumption is often wrong as your professors have a vast experience. You can easily get caught if you try to plagiarize intentionally.

First of all, if you are at the early level of your academics, let us suppose, a first year student, your writing style is going to be distinctive from the source you are going to copy from. An experienced professor can instantly find the difference between a paper written by a first year student and a scholar.

Secondly, professors read a lot of papers in their lives. Remember that they have read most of the works published till today. So when you copy paste someone else’s work, there is a fair chance that they will know it readily.

And finally, we are living in the age of science and technology. There are a number of software and websites that can easily detect plagiarizing. And your professor might use any one of them to check whether you have written it by yourself or not.

How can I actually avoid Plagiarism?

If you want your paper or essay to be completely plagiarism free, always make sure that you have cited all the sources you used for research. Make a list of all the books, websites, articles etc. and cite them according to the regulations followed in your institute.

However, sometimes you are confused about something if it is a common knowledge or not. In this case, you should cite the source because it is better that you cite than plagiarize.

Can I be thrown into Prison for Plagiarizing?

Just like any other theft, academic theft is also a crime for sure. Stealing other’s intellectual property is not different from stealing a concrete property. It is an offence no less than any other act that deserves punishment.

However, it you are caught plagiarizing in class, you might fail the course, thrown out of the class or get expelled from the college. But you will not be thrown into jail for this.

Outside of classroom, plagiarizing in papers, meant to be published publicly, can have more serious consequences. You can be sued into a federal court by the original publisher or author for violating the copyright acts. Or it could mean the loss of your job and your career will be jeopardize with a bad reputation.

How to Annotate a Text (and why it’s Helpful)

December 6, 2019 by davidsimmonsphd, posted in Writing Tips

Whether you are a student or a professional writer, working with the best essay writer service and assisting others complete their assignments, reading and comprehending the text in front of you is essential. A study, conducted among the best essay writer service providers, shows that most students often find themselves in the midst of nowhere when they read for a long time. They don’t have the slightest of idea what the author has said in last few paragraphs.

Fortunately, the problem can be overcome by using various techniques. And one of these effective techniques in annotation.

What is Annotation?

An annotation is a note, explanation or comment about some particular part of the text. This note enables you to question, understand or explain the key ideas presented in that portion of the text. Annotations are generally given in the margins of the text book.

Unlike highlighting, annotating is a more active form of reading. While highlighting, you just point out the important phrases, things you need to understand or questions that need to be answered. This does not engage you much with the reading process.

But when you annotate a text while reading it, you are able to explain various ideas, pose questions and your first response to the text and engage yourself in the activity better.

How to Annotate?

This section will introduce you to the strategies and methods you may use to annotate effectively. We are going to look at the activity step by step.

Survey the Article:

When you come across the article/book, look at its credibility first. Research about the author and its year of publication to get the context. Note the title and try to make sense of what the topic is and what is the author going to argue about.

Look at the headings and subheadings and see what they offer to understand. Highlight the bold or italicized phrases or words and look for an abstract or methodology, if provided.

Skim:

Secondly, skim through the article and see what it has to offer you. Read the introduction and try to identify the thesis statement. Comprehending the main theme helps you remain focused.

After you are done with the introduction, skim through the body paragraphs and look at the main ideas by concentrating on the first few lines of each paragraph.

Read:

Finally, go through the whole article paying attention on the small details. You have already got a good idea of the main theme and the argument of the article. Highlight the main themes, write important questions in the margin and circle the words or definitions you don’t recognize. Mark the transition points and the change of tone as well.

Make it Easy for yourself:

Annotation is an activity that helps you fathom the complex ideas you could not comprehend otherwise. Therefore, it’s imperative that you make it easy enough to be understood when you go through the text next time.

A few strategies can help you in this regard:

If you use highlighters to mark the important points in the text, always use different colors for different kinds of reactions to the text. For example all the definitions can be highlighted with green while all the disagreement or confusions can be given the yellow color.
Add a key to your article explaining what kind of color is used to indicate a particular kind of reaction or information.
Do not underline or highlight everything. Use various shapes including circle, triangle or even question mark to indicate different kinds of information. Add this in your key too.
Use each margin for one purpose only. Questions in the left, statement/reactions in the right, definitions in the top and summary in the bottom margin, for instance.

Why Annotation is Helpful?

It keeps you awake:

Have you ever noticed that you have been reading a book or article but suddenly you realize that you don’t know what these last few paragraphs were about? It happens often. Annotation keeps you awake and alert because you have a pencil and a highlighter in your hand to jot down your instant reactions on what the author has said.

Active reading:

A book on light fiction or an ordinary topic might not need a lot of attention. However, when you are reading works of great literature, they need more concentration. You need to read between the lines. Annotation helps you read a book actively and engages you with the text for better understanding.

A conversation between reader and author:

Reading a great book by a reputed author doesn’t mean you have to be a passive receptacle and accept everything. Annotation enables you to converse with the author by stating your own responses. You may disagree, just the way you do when having a conversation with your teacher in class. This creates an environment that helps you concentrate more and keeps you active. Because now you are not reading something, rather you are conversing.

United Nations Day and Its History

November 1, 2019 by davidsimmonsphd, posted in International Days

October 24 marks the celebration of a day known as United Nations Day. United Nation is an organization that helps countries to develop friendly relations with other countries, bring international peace and harmony, and to achieve international cooperation. United Nations Day commemorates all the hard and honorable work this organization has done in order to promote peace around the world. Around the world events are held in regard to United Nation Organization.

There is an interesting history behind the formation and celebration of United Nations Day. After World War I, it was decided that a treaty was needed to be found to avoid another war, so the treaty of Versailles came into existence. The treaty was signed on 28^th of June, 1919 in Versailles, France and it was essentially meant to be League of Nations that will try to prevent further outbreaks of war, and to promote diplomatic relations and to encourage negotiations between countries. It was also said to improve the quality of life for people all around the world. Unfortunately, League of Nations failed to do its job, and failed to prevent another world war, resulting in the commencement of World War II. So it was decided that a different approach is needed to tackle the issue of countries’ war mongering nature.

Towards the end of World War II, the idea of the “United Nations” came into existence, after the demise of League of Nation. Hence, the United Nations birthed its existence on October 24, 1945. It was after three years that in 1948, U.N observed the United Nations Day for the first time. However, it was 1971, that the United Nations Day was set as an international holiday by a resolution of U.N and was required to be celebrated by all the members of United Nation.

Today, United Nations Day commemorates all that U.N stand for in the world. It helps countries and their people to remember the four main purposes of the United Nations.

To maintain peace and security around the world
To develop relationships among member nations
Promote an atmosphere of communication and dialogue between nations.
Provide a forum to bring countries together to meet the purposes and goals of the United Nation.

United Nations is also creating awareness about “languages endangerment and the need to safeguard the world’s linguistic diversity.” The UN is very concerned with languages: one of its most important projects aims at language preservation and it is called “World Languages in Danger.” The United Nations declared 2019 to be “The Year of Indigenous Languages.” The reason for it is to raise awareness about the importance of languages and their contributions towards a diverse culture. Languages are dying, and UN is trying to save them.

United Nations Day Customs & Traditions

United Nations Day is traditionally celebrated with a wide range of displays, discussion groups, debates, and meetings. Activities which honor the achievements of U.N and events that helps U.N to lay out their goals. However, this holiday has an even greater purpose – as embodied by the people who celebrate it. For example, many schools, colleges, or universities celebrate this day by honoring their foreign students. Celebrating their diversity and their culture by hosting different events and segments that include dancing, presentation, music and food from different countries.

In a state like Kosovo, United Nations Day is celebrated as an official non-working day. In Philippines, school children will often dress themselves in the costumes of the countries in which they come from, in order to celebrate the day. In United States of America, the president will issue a declaration recognizing United Nations Day, this has been the trend since 1946.

How You Can Celebrate United Nations Day

People from all around the world celebrate the United Nations Day with all their might. They celebrate it by not only showing pride in their own cultural traditions, but they also try to learn and support other cultures. If you are a student, maybe your essay assignments are in your way into celebrating United Nations Day. You can seek help from various websites that offer the best essay help there is, so you can easily enjoy and celebrate the United Nations Day. Here are some of the ways you can follow to celebrate the United Nations Day.

You can host a speaker at your school who will highlight what the United Nations is about and what they stand for. Also, highlights the works and achievements of the united Nation. You can think about ways to incorporate this into an academic department, or try to collaborate with a student organization.
Arrange a projector at your school, have UN issue related documentaries and show them to students. Doing this will enlighten them with the works and issues United Nation are striving against.
Since this year’s theme of United Nations Day 2019 is “Our Planet. Our Future,” you can plant trees and plants and hold tree planting events at your school, college or university.
You can hold united nation day round table discussion on international youth issues. Students from different backgrounds can use this platform to share their stories and diversity.
You can decorate your building, hostels, or university’s building in blue and white to promote United Nation awareness.
You can collaborate with different student body organizations to host an event in which different cultures are appropriately represented. The students can wear their national dress, representing their culture and heritage.
You can hold debates in your universities, giving voice to different debaters.
You can arrange a setting in which you can host a discussion featuring and elected officials who are running for their local state, or national office to voice their views on United Nations and international politics. This will give you a brief understanding in the prospects of UN, as well as the candidate’s.
You can honor a local leader or entrepreneur and their commitment towards the United Nation’s sustainable development goals.
You can hold fundraisers in your school, colleges and universities and collect funds and donations. You can donate to United Nation Foundation, or you can choose a charity organization of your own choice.