Of all academic offenses that a student can commit, plagiarism remains one of the most serious ones. Ranging from a comparatively innocent error in citing a source to the unabashed appropriation of other people’s work, plagiarism represents a violation of the principal standards of academic ethics (Foltýnek et al., 2019). Using the SafeAssign tool has helped me understand the gravity of failing to cite sources correctly and attribute each quotation to its rightful author, especially in instances of accidental plagiarism.
The SafeAssign report has pointed to several dents in my writing that I should mend to produce better papers. Specifically, it appears that I tend to use quite several expressions that frequently occur in the papers of other students. Although the specified issue cannot technically be considered plagiarism since it suggests the overuse of common academic tropes, it needs to be addressed to make my papers more original (Foltýnek et al., 2019). Therefore, developing a unique academic style and enriching my language should be deemed as the next logical step.
Though most of the outcomes of the assessment have been clear, some of the remarks made in the SafeAssign report have generated several questions. For instance, it is not quite clear whether the specified report helps manage the cases that can be considered ambiguous regarding plagiarism. For instance, situations that could seem like poor paraphrasing yet, in fact, represent exact answers to specific questions and, therefore, cannot be modified structurally imply a high probability of being marked as plagiarized by the SafeAssign tool. However, the very framework of such an assignment does not suggest any possibility of shaping the answer differently. The described scenario raises the question of how the levels of plagiarism can be checked in similar situations.
The application of SafeAssign to check the extent of my papers’ originality is bound to assist me in improving my writing. Specifically, the tool in question will indicate the level of originality in my writing, guiding me toward developing a unique writing style that will be marked by exceptional originality. Thus, SafeAssign is invaluable in creating a unique writing style.
To continue through the Doctoral program, I will use SafeAssign to ensure that my writing is fully authentic and unique. First and most importantly, SafeAssign will be used to catch any accidental plagiarism or instances of misquotations. Additionally, SafeAssign will be utilized to analyze my writing and introduce to the current academic style unique elements that will make my papers entirely original.
The results delivered by SafeAssign have provided multiple insights into the nature and causes of plagiarism. Specifically, the report has demonstrated the importance of checking whether all sources have been referenced fully and in complete accordance with the required referencing style. Moreover, SafeAssign has proven that my writing contains quite several phrases and collocations used by a range of other students, which devalues the originality of my paper. The latter fact was previously unknown to me, which was why using SafeAssign was vital in improving my academic writing.
Using SafeAssign as a tool for addressing the issue of academic plagiarism has helped shape the understanding of the importance of citing sources correctly and ensuring that accidental plagiarism should not edge its way into the paper. Moreover, the use of SafeAssign has encouraged a significant improvement in my professional writing by helping me draw a more distinct line between the evidence taken from other sources and the conclusions made based on the pieces of information in question. As a result, I feel much more confident in developing my arguments and supporting them with claims from authoritative sources.
Reference
Foltýnek, T., Meuschke, N., & Gipp, B. (2019). Academic plagiarism detection: a systematic literature review. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 52(6), 1-42.