Whenever you collect information from a source material and use it in your writing, you should endeavor to cite the source. Plagiarism occurs whenever you take another person's ideas, text, or other creative work and use or publish it as if they were your own. The easiest way to avoid plagiarism is to always use quotation marks when you quote directly from a source (or if it is lengthy, use block quotation) and always cite a source when you borrow or even refer indirectly to it.

The easiest form of committing plagiarism is simply copying, either word for word or with a few words added and the sentence order/structure changed. Anyone who compares the source material and your writing and can recognize plagiarism instantly.

Example:

Information Source: "the rise in petrol pump price has resulted in the increase of food prices in Nigeria" (Adeleke, 2015).

Committing Plagiarism: The increase in fuel price has led to the rise in food prices in Nigeria.

Not Committing Plagiarism: The exorbitant prices of commodities in the country can be attributed to the recent increase in fuel price (Adeleke, 2015).

Some other ways to avoid plagiarism

1. Make sure you get information from different sources

Do not rely on a single textbook, periodicals or scientific journals to get information for your research project. You should have as many sources, so as to gain more on the research area and this will help you write without committing plagiarism.


2. Learn how to properly rephrase

Do not just copy and paste the information you collected from the reference paper. Instead, make sure you understand the idea in the information and write the information in your own words.


3. Use plagiarism checkers

There are different plagiarism tools which you can use to check your work. Free plagiarism tools such as www.duplichecker.com, www.plagtracker.com or www.smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker can help you check if you work is plagiarized.