Plagiarism is nothing new – in fact, it’s an academic crime that’s as old as time. However, not all plagiarism is built the same. There are countless types of plagiarism, from intentional to accidental, and while each produces the same effect – a violation of academic integrity – knowing the difference between them is vital to students and educators. Especially if you are a marketing agency and are producing content for your client(s).
- Full Plagiarism
This is perhaps the type of plagiarism that most people have in mind when they think about academic dishonesty. If you take the entire work of another writer and try to pass it off as your own, this is an example of full plagiarism. Tantamount to stealing, this type of plagiarism is also the easiest to identify.
- Source-Based Plagiarism
The next type of plagiarism is source-based plagiarism. This is when a writer references a source that either does not exist or cites it so poorly that a reader cannot link that information back to the source. Data fabrication is another sub-category of this plagiarism and is when a writer knowingly creates data to support his or her false claims.
- Paraphrasing Plagiarism
This kind of plagiarism is one of the most difficult for writers to avoid. This kind of plagiarism, often committed by students at the secondary and post-secondary level, involves submitting someone else’s writing after making some small changes to the wording of the sentence. The writing might be heavy in synonym substitution but will still have the same basic idea of the original work.
- Blatant Plagiarism
This kind of plagiarism is similar to full plagiarism but includes only sections of another author’s work instead of using the entire passage. This kind of cheating is also common and relatively easy to detect.
- Self-plagiarism
Self-plagiarism is perhaps the most difficult kind of plagiarism to detect. This is when a writer refuses his or her previously published or submitted work without attribution. This is incredibly common and difficult to penalize at the university level, as it’s often unclear to students that this behavior is unacceptable.
- Patchwork Plagiarism
Patchwork plagiarism is tough to weed out- but it’s everywhere. This kind of plagiarism occurs when somebody uses someone else’s ideas in a text without attribution but in an intermittent, inconsistent fashion. While many writers will try to pass this off as unintentional, the reality is that patchwork plagiarism, when it occurs, is always deliberate.
- Misleading Attribution Plagiarism
If a writer contributes to a text and does not receive credit for it – or if a writer does not contribute to a text and does get credit for it – this is known as misleading attribution plagiarism. It often happens when somebody besides the author either edits or submits a manuscript and makes sweeping changes yet does not receive credit for doing so.
- Accidental Plagiarism
The final type of plagiarism is one that could include a majority of the types of plagiarism on this list. Often, people plagiarize by accident because they aren’t sure how to properly cite a text or are unaware that the information they are using requires a citation. However, no level of plagiarism should be tolerated or considered accidental because ignorance of the rules is never an acceptable excuse for academic dishonesty.
Whether you’re an instructor or a student, there are many ways you can prevent plagiarism. One of the best is to use this free plagiarism checker for teachers, which will help you weed out any possible plagiarism issues in your writing.
While these are the most common types of plagiarism, it’s important to realize that this infraction can occur on many different levels and take many different forms. As an educator, administrator, student, or marketing agency, it’s important to be aware of the many different types of plagiarism you might be committing so that you can be better at preventing them in the future. Also, if you receive any content marketing services from any marketing agency, make sure that it is not plagiarizing because it can prove to damage your rankings, and reputation as a small business.
