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The consequences of plagiarism can be severe for both the plagiariser and the person whose work or ideas have been plagiarised. Just the mention of the word plagiarism is often enough to strike fear into the heart of any writer or student, or in fact in the heart of the creator of any original work. This article looks at why plagiarism is such an important issue, some of the main types of plagiarism, and how you can actively avoid plagiarising another person’s work. What is plagiarism? “plagiarism: The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own. Recorded from the early 17th century, the word comes from Latin plagiarius ‘kidnapping’.” ~ Oxford Reference Plagiarism is seen as a form of stealing - illegal, unethical, and damaging to both plagiarist and those being plagiarised. What sort of content does it cover? It covers not only written content such as books, articles, and essays, but anything that is another’s original work. For example, music, graphics, video games, TV programmes and films, paintings, photography, computer software, and clothing. Producing original written work for yourself and for others is crucial to retaining your integrity, and that of your work. If you pass off the work of others as your own you risk losing professional or academic credibility, and permanently damaging your reputation. The consequences of plagiarism are just as far reaching for those whose work has been used without permission. I know someone well who had their writing stolen from their website, and word-for-word made into a book which sold on Amazon for more than a year before the original author discovered it. The impact on the original author was not only on an emotional level; the work had now been published which made it impossible for them to publish it themselves without rewriting. The only ‘consolation’ the true author of this work took away from their experience, was that the book received many favourable reviews. However, to see someone else receiving praise and financial compensation for something you 100% created yourself is a very unpleasant experience. Even when content is being given away for free by the original author, as was the case with this book, plagiarism isn’t by any means a victimless act. If, for example, university students routinely plagiarise content in order to get higher grades, the value and academic integrity of university degrees would be undermined. And if someone gains professional credibility through passing off someone else’s work as their own, the advantages and respect they consequently receive from colleagues and the wider community are not earned, and may well be taken at the expense of others. Types of Plagiarism Accidental or unintentional plagiarism The book example above was deliberate plagiarism – the plagiarist knowingly copied that work and published it without attribution or consent. The original work was clearly marked as copyrighted but even if it had not been, they knew none of the content they published belonged to them, and they deliberately set out to gain financially from another’s work. Accidental plagiarism on the other hand, occurs when someone unintentionally uses another’s work or words without identifying the author or original source. However, the fact that you did not intend to deceive is no defence against accidental plagiarism, and the consequences can still be serious - your reputation may suffer regardless of whether the plagiarism was intentional or not. Unfortunately, it’s easy to unintentionally plagiarise someone else’s work. We have access to online resources and sources that we can simply copy and paste from when we read something that we would like to refer to in our own writing. Or we might copy an extract from a printed book, journal, research paper etc., and forget to make a note of where those words come from. When we return to our notes later, we think the words are ours and they are included in our final piece without credit to the original author. Very often, accidental plagiarism is simply caused by a lack of knowledge about how to credit sources properly. And sometimes it’s caused by a writer’s lack of confidence in their ability to put their thoughts or ideas into their own words. Direct Plagiarism The example of plagiarism we discussed earlier, where a whole manuscript was taken and turned into a book sold under another’s name, was an example of complete plagiarism. Direct plagiarism is similar to complete plagiarism in that it relates to the word for word copying of someone else’s work without giving proper attribution, but direct plagiarism refers to the copying of sections of work, rather than the whole text. Self-Plagiarism Self-plagiarism is the reuse or duplication, without attribution, of work you have previously published. It might seem strange that you can plagiarise your own work – after all, you created it – but self-plagiarism is also frowned upon and can have serious consequences. If you’re a published author, it’s likely you will need permission from your publishers to reuse any part of your work. Check your publisher’s rules on this. As a student, you cannot reuse content from one essay in another without citing that you have previously used it. Freelance writers often write on similar topics for multiple clients. Your clients want original work, and they own the work you created for them, and for which they paid you. Although you wrote the words, you cannot reuse them without permission. Mosaic plagiarism or patchwork plagiarism Mosaic or patchwork plagiarism is taking someone’s sentences or phrases and inserting them throughout your work without using quotation marks, and without using proper citation. It includes rewording or paraphrasing the material whilst at the same time keeping the same sentence structure of the original source. How to avoid plagiarism Be confident in your own writing skills and your unique perspective As mentioned above, some instances of plagiarism occur because writers are new and not yet confident in their subject or their writing skills. They are learning their craft, and learning the subject they are writing about, and much of this learning is done by looking at the work of others who seem to express so easily exactly what they would like to say. In those circumstances it might seem easy to copy a few perfect sentences or turns of phrase. But instead, be confident in your own ideas and your own way of expressing them. We all have something to offer, an opinion, or unique perspective or point of view. You’ll become more confident in including these in your writing the more you practise the art of writing, and the more you learn and write about your subject. Know when to exercise caution if you employ virtual assistants, ghostwriters, or freelancers Claiming you didn’t know the work written by your freelancer, ghostwriter, or virtual assistant was not original is not a valid defence. Make sure the people you employ to create work for you are aware of the potentially serious consequences of plagiarism for both of you – for your careers and credibility. And make sure they know your policy regarding crediting the work of others. Do you have a checklist you can provide for them as a reminder? If not, create a document that shows exactly how you want them to quote or cite and reference etc. in the work they create for you. If you’re using a site such as Fiverr where you can get blog posts or articles for a very small sum in a short space of time, exercise caution and check the work before you publish it. There are many good writers on these sites who are simply starting out as writers and earning a small income before they get established, but there may be others who are not as genuine and who will pass work on to you that is, wholly or partly, reused or copied from elsewhere – be careful. Automatic plagiarism checkers make it easy to check the written work you commission is original. It’s also worth keeping in mind that for good quality original work you should expect to pay more. Use consistent note-taking techniques to help avoid plagiarism If you’re making notes in Word or any other electronic note-taking system, immediately highlight any text/quotes etc in yellow (or a different colour of your choice) so it’s obvious you didn’t write it. Include a link to the original source, or notes about the book, other printed sources, so you can go back and reference your sources properly before you publish. You could do the same on paper with a highlighter pen – or write the copied text in a different colour. Know how to use citations properly, and credit all your sources Very often, plagiarism occurs simply because of a lack of knowledge about how to credit original sources correctly, rather than the intent to deceive and pass off another’s work as your own. Use your own words and ideas as much as you can, and make sure you know and follow your university’s, employer’s, or publisher’s guidelines for citation style. If in doubt, cite. Use a plagiarism checker Plagiarism checkers show you whether your text contains any duplicated content. Anyone who creates original written content can also check to see if someone has copied parts of their work. If you put your work through a plagiarism checker and find apparently duplicated copy, don’t panic, it doesn’t automatically mean that the content identified is plagiarised. Use the checker as a tool to help you find anything you might have missed. Look at the parts highlighted as identical or very similar to other content – do they need citations, or quotation marks? Maybe you forgot to put them in. If you think you’ve quoted or copied something but not credited it, do a simple internet search and see if you can find the original source. It may be that the expression or extract highlighted is simply a commonly used expression and not something copied from another person’s work. Summary The consequences of plagiarism can be serious even if it is unintentional. It can be easy to commit plagiarism whether out of forgetfulness, or a lack of knowledge about the correct way to credit your sources. Always err on the side of caution and provide citations for words and ideas that are not your own. Refer to your university’s guidelines - or whomever you are writing for. Adopt a careful note-taking process that will help you minimize the potential for inadvertently passing off another’s work as your own. And don’t forget it’s possible to plagiarise your own work! Passing your work through a good plagiarism checker will help you identify any missing citations or quotation marks.
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Love the website so far the interface is seamless :) One thing that would be really great is an ability to turn on a "bland word" checker where it would search for bland words in the writing ie: good, bad, said and it would highlight them and recommend better words ie: instead of bad = horrendous or said =stated. Anyways, keep up the good word :)
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What do you mean? The app is ad editor.typely.com
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Where is the app????????? Can't find online?????
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Thanks for responding, I've gotten everything back. Elf
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what exactly do you mean? Your work is not saved?
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Not able to return to my work(s). elf
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The difference between 'their', 'there' and 'they’re': with example sentences
Elf commented on romeo's blog entry in Typely Official
This information is good to have. -
Improve reader comprehension with online Flesch-Kincaid readability tests
Elf commented on romeo's blog entry in Typely Official
This is great. -
How to use English contractions correctly: with word list and examples
GoatGuy commented on romeo's blog entry in Typely Official
Then, of course, there are the double contractions, perfectly understandable by most-every English speaker, yet just as universally declared as inappropriate to use in the written word. Such as, I wouldn't've known better, if Ms McCarthy hadn't learnt it into us good... Did you boys steal that pie? ... "'Twasn't any of us, Ma'am" Almost always, the double-contraction is an ordinary contraction, negated. {---} + not + have. The second example is particularly hard to decide, it being such a common Americanism. And there are the entirely linguistic contractions that no one attempts to spell out: 'was' + 'his' ... as in "That was's name, yessiree". Obviously, no one uses the "Was's" form But that IS how a large minority of the public would actually say it. Anyway... a minor in linguistics aside, I rather like using contractions these days in most of my writing, when appropriate. Why not. Life is short, and we really aught to have fun writing, especially since it seems to be something of a dying Art. GoatGuy 1/22/2020 -
In this post we first look at what adverbs are and what they do, along with some examples of adverbs in use. We’ll see how adverbs can be very useful in our writing and, conversely, how they can also be a problem - especially if they are overused. Finally, we’ll look at when, and where, we should consider pruning them from our writing. INTRODUCTION “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice As I was writing this post about the much-maligned adverb, and thinking about how valuable, or problematic, this part of language is for writers, it occurred to me that much like Jane Austen’s universally acknowledged truth about wealthy single men, it seems it’s a universally acknowledged truth that adverbs are a problem – that they should be avoided, entirely if possible, and sought out and ruthlessly pruned from our writing. Perhaps an appropriately similar quote would go something like this… It is a truth universally acknowledged that writing in possession of too many adverbs must be in want of some pruning/editing! I expect you have read a great deal of advice that recommends avoiding over-using adverbs in your writing, especially with regard to creative writing. Mark Twain complained of an “adverb plague”, and according to Kingsley Amis, if you are using an adverb, you have got the verb wrong. But probably the most quoted advice is from the writer Stephen King I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout if from the rooftops. To put it another way, they’re like dandelions. If you have one on your lawn, it looks pretty and unique. If you fail to root it out, however, you find five the next day . . . fifty the day after that . . . and then, my brothers and sisters, your lawn is totally, completely, and profligately covered with dandelions. By then you see them for the weeds they really are, but by then it’s — GASP!! — too late. But are adverbs really such a problem? Should we purge them from our writing, or should we celebrate them as a perfectly good and useful part of language, and an essential part of the writer’s set of tools? First, let’s take a quick look at what adverbs are, and what they do. What are adverbs and what do they do? Adverbs are words that modify (describe) verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They provide us with additional information and describe the way something happens or happened. They can tell us things such as how, when, and where something happens, and to what extent or under what conditions. For example: She sings beautifully. I write in my journal daily. He writes very well. We saw her yesterday morning. We’re looking for somewhere to stay in France. We’ve never been to Paris. Some examples of common adverbs ‘How’ adverbs badly carefully cheerfully expertly quietly well ‘When’ adverbs afterwards – They met in May 2009 and got engaged shortly afterwards. daily early monthly never now often regularly soon still then today – Are you working today? ‘Where’ adverbs here – The countdown to Christmas starts here. outside somewhere there – I emigrated from the UK in 1992 and I haven’t been back there since. ‘Adverbs showing the extent of something extremely – She did extremely well in her exams. quite terribly – Would you mind terribly if we didn’t come to your party next week? very Adverbs modifying verbs Our greenhouse was badly damaged in the storm. He walked home slowly. He gets up early every day. I’m sorry, I must go. My train will be arriving soon. She stepped carefully into the steaming bath. Adverbs modifying adjectives He drives a very fast car. My grandfather was an extremely tall, thin man. Our boss expects us to work impossibly long hours. Adverbs modifying other adverbs My train arrived unexpectedly early. He ate his food extremely quickly. Many adverbs end in -ly These are formed by adding –ly to an adjective. For example: beautiful – beautifully bold – boldly eager - eagerly slow – slowly quiet - quietly If the adjective ends in a ‘y’ you need to change the ‘y’ to an ‘i’ and then add -ly. For example: angry – angrily cosy - cosily easy – easily moody – moodily ready - readily steady – steadily Some adverbs have the same form as adjectives, for example: fast hard late well wrong daily, weekly, monthly, yearly For and against adverbs The main argument against adverbs is that they can make your writing weak by littering it with unnecessary words. However, as we have seen above, we need some adverbs - those that tell us things like how, when and where, and to what extent etc., something happens. We also need linking adverbs – these are words such as ‘therefore’, ‘however’, ‘nevertheless’, ‘whereas’, and ‘while’, that enable us to do things such as connect or contrast ideas and emphasize contrasting points or arguments. Adverbs can add meaning, clarification, colour, depth and interest to your writing. Used properly, they strengthen your writing. If a character in your story is singing, you can give your reader more information with adverbs… Elsie sang quietly to herself as she folded her baby’s clothes. You can use adverbs to create sentences that create a picture for your readers, or that evoke an emotion: “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams” – from The Cloths of Heaven, W.B. Yeats “…or if your wish be to close me, i and my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly…” – from somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond, by e. e. cummings How to identify and cut unnecessary adverbs from your writing Locate the adverbs in your writing – and see how removing each one affects its sentence. Ask yourself whether, without the adverb, the sentence has less impact and its meaning is now less clear. If so, keep the adverb in, or think of a stronger word or expression to replace the adverb. Conversely, if by removing an adverb you feel a sentence’s clarity and impact for your reader has now improved, feel free to unceremoniously eject the offending adverb from your writing. Here are a few things to look out for… Adverb/verb combinations Adverb/verb combinations can sometimes be better written with a single (stronger) verb, e.g. ‘She ran quickly up the stairs’ could be ‘She sprinted up the stairs.’. ‘He walked quickly through the graveyard and into the church’. Depending on your character and the effect you want, perhaps this could be better written as… ‘He strode through the graveyard and into the church.’ walked slowly – ambled smiled cheerfully – grinned Intensifiers Intensifiers are words such as, absolutely, completely, definitely, extremely, highly, really, so, totally, truly, and utterly. They are very common in speech… Oh my God, this song is totally amazing. Her wedding dress was absolutely gorgeous. …but ‘amazing’, and ‘gorgeous’ are strong descriptive words that most likely don’t need those modifiers in your writing, unless you are writing very informally, or you are writing a character’s speech. My father was extremely angry when I got home late. Here, ‘extremely angry’ could be replaced with a strong adjective like ‘livid’. The hurricane completely obliterated the town. The intensifier ‘totally’ is redundant here because if something is obliterated it is already wiped out or utterly destroyed. Redundant or repetitive adverbs Other redundant or repetitive adverbs include descriptors such as: she screamed loudly – ‘loudly’ is redundant because a scream is usually understood to be loud he smiled happily – ‘happily’ is redundant because it’s generally accepted that a smile is happy. An adverb would be an appropriate addition to ‘smile’ if you want to convey something other than happiness, e.g. sarcasm, malice, or fear. Conclusion Very often, adverbs are useful because they are helping you define and clarify meaning. But sometimes they are redundant, and excessive, and are simply literary litter to be deleted posthaste. It’s impossible to completely avoid using adverbs, but when you check for them in your writing consider each one’s value and the work it’s doing for you and your reader. Consider which ones are unnecessary and can be removed where doing so will improve your writing, and which ones should stay because they are earning their keep. Don’t automatically assume that adverbs must be avoided at all costs – after all, it’s your writing, your unique style, and your audience. But certainly, do use adverbs wisely and remove them judiciously – use them, but don’t overuse them. Finally, let’s finish with a positive shout-out for adverbs… “I adore adverbs; they are the only qualifications I very much respect.” Henry James
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Hi... Is my first time in Typely, I am learning writing in English , and this is an excellent tool for me. This allow me correct my writings in the most practical issues, except Grammar. My QUESTION OR SUGGESTION IS: WHY DONT YOU HAVE A BOTTON OR ICON FOR ERASE/DISMISS OR ERASE DOCUMENT, NEXT TO THE RED OPTION IN RESULTS WHERE SAYS: SAVE YOUR DOCUMENT , Maybe you could add next to this the option : ERASE DOCUMENT ???? PLEASE? Because I do not find the option to erase the doc and sustitute for another one quickly withpoit save. So, in my case, I use interchange documents frequently, adn I think this option could be very useful for all users of Typely. Thank you so much for your Excellent Program.... Sounds and Pomodoro included...!!!! Sorry, I forget another suggstion>>> could you add an Icon to erase or dismiss your suggestions of correction highligted in the text? I mean, with out disable the results (blue round botton). Because this erase all the possible errors higlighted, and not just the one we want overlook. (Like in Grammarly?), sorry. Thank you so much Felix
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Redundancy in writing: what it is, and why you should avoid it
Angela Boothroyd posted an article in Articles
This post looks at redundancy in writing: what it is, why you should avoid it, whether it’s always a bad thing, and how to identify it in your writing. It also includes a list of common examples of redundancy. Etymology: from Latin redundant, redundāns, present participle of redundāre - to overflow What is redundancy? Redundancy in writing is the unnecessary repetition or duplication of words, phrases, sentences, ideas and information etc. - anything that could be omitted without loss of significance or meaning. A simple example would be something like: We also went to Cambodia too. also and too have the same meaning and therefore one of those words is redundant. We can omit one of them without losing any meaning. What potential problems does redundancy cause? "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." – French writer and poet Antoine de Saint-Exupery Superfluous words make your writing less succinct. They’re distracting for your reader and can confuse meaning. Words and information that add unnecessary length, but nothing else, simply make your writing longer while contributing nothing to its quality. Is redundancy always a bad thing? Although the word redundancy carries negative connotations, and as we’ve seen it can affect the quality of your writing, redundancy/repetition is also a linguistically sound way of showing emphasis in your writing. It can be used for rhetorical effect to draw your readers attention to certain words, ideas, and information. It’s also useful for reducing the scope for readers to misunderstand or misinterpret your words. And although it’s more common to use repetition in speech, where the possibility for a listener to misunderstand is greater than for a reader, repetition in writing is still a useful tactic. If a message is entirely without redundancy, if it contains ONLY that which is strictly necessary, it’s easy to lose or radically change the meaning in that message when even a minor error is made. And last but not least, redundancy can help with the rhythm of your sentences making your writing easier to read. Examples of redundancy Below are some common examples of redundant words. Some have a brief explanation, but in general no explanations are needed because the redundancy is clear. 1. new innovation – an innovation is a new idea or product etc. so there is no need to add the word new With redundancy: A new innovation designed to improve surgical and medical procedures... Without redundancy: An innovation designed to improve surgical and medical procedures … 2. advance warning - a warning is already advance notification about something; the word advance is superfluous here 3. blend together 4. briefly summarize 5. close proximity 6. collaborate together 7. completely finished 8. consensus of opinion 9. end result 10. evolve over time 11. exactly the same 12. free gift – a gift is already something given free of charge 13. longer or shorter in length – longer or shorter 14. past history – we already know history is something that occurred in the past 15. plan ahead - planning is already preparation for future events and outcomes 16. postpone until later - to postpone is to put off until a later date 17. repeat again – we only need *repeat* here 18. revert back to – and here we only need *revert* 19. unexpected surprise – a surprise is something that happens unexpectedly 20. 6.00 a.m. in the morning - a.m. already tells your reader it’s in the morning 21. A total of fifty runners took part in the marathon. “A total of” is superfluous. “Fifty runners took part in the marathon” is succinct. Many of these phrases - like free gift and end result - are common enough that we now don’t give them a second thought. The ubiquitous free gift is so familiar as to be largely unquestioned (except perhaps among the slightly more pedantic). And I think it’s now even expected that the word ‘free’ is added to avoid any doubt that something is free of charge. Redundant acronym phrases You’ve probably heard people say “PIN number”, or even said it yourself. I know I have! The acronym PIN stands for Personal Identification Number – the numerical code used in electronic financial transactions. So, “PIN number” - which translates as personal identification number number - is a good example of redundancy. ATM machine - automatic teller machine machine - is another good example. A redundancy of this type is known as a redundant acronym phrase (RAP), and its use is known as redundant acronym syndrome (RAS). Or, self-referentially, as an “RAP phrase” and “RAS syndrome”! Other RAPs include: HIV virus - human immunodeficiency virus virus LAN network - local area network network LCD display - liquid crystal display display The above are just a few examples of redundancy, but they should give you an idea of what to look out for in your writing. How to find examples of redundancy in your writing Check your work for potential redundancies with online proofreading software which will flag up any repetition for you to check and edit if necessary. You can also go through your finished document yourself using proofreading techniques to check for superfluous content that can be cut out or improved. An excellent way to identify redundancy is to read your work out loud. Any instances of repetition or duplication should be obvious. As you’re proofreading, consider whether you really do need technically redundant words for emphasis. And whether repeated information could be removed without affecting your meaning. -
Hi, I opened this topic to say that I like this online editor, and I find it to be the best out there. Thank you to the developers of this awesome editor.
