Types of Plagiarism and How to Avoid Them

Plagiarism is a widespread problemnot only among students but also among academics, professional writers, and businesses.

Paraphrasing services, especially when you can find a high-quality paraphrasing service, are a quick and easy way to avoid plagiarism, but you may lack the budget to use these types of services.

Therefore, if you are interested in knowing about what plagiarism is, what its main types are, and how it can be avoided in academic writing, business writing, and other types of written work, then this article will answer all of these questions.

Definition of plagiarism

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, plagiarism refers to the following:

To steal and pass off the ideas or words of another as one’s own: to use another’s production without crediting the source.

This definition dispels the misconception that plagiarism only occurs when you steal the words of another author. In fact, plagiarism also refers to stealing the ideas of other authors.

Another important feature of this definition is its emphasis on the fact that plagiarism arises when “the source” is not properly credited.

This means that one of the most basic and direct ways to avoid plagiarism – in general – is to ensure that you cite the original author whenever you use their words or ideas.

Types of plagiarism

Every type of plagiarism involves stealing another person’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own. However, there are different types of plagiarism, with the most common ones being listed below:

  • Direct plagiarism: Also known as copy-and-paste plagiarism, direct plagiarism happens when you use a paragraph written by another author without citing it.
  • Self-plagiarism:Many authors are surprised to learn that you can plagiarise yourself. This happens when you reuse parts of your work (e.g., a research paper from last year) without citing it.
  • Global plagiarism: Global plagiarism happens when you ask someone else to write an original work for you but pass off the work as your own (e.g., purchasing an essay from a friend).
  • Mosaic plagiarism:This form of plagiarism happens when you take bits and pieces from various authors, creating a patchwork of their ideas in an entirely new text. Although the text is new, its words and ideas are not.

Avoiding plagiarism

Avoiding plagiarism is much simpler than it might seem.

First and foremost, it is always possible to recruit the services of an experienced professional in the form of proofreading services. These are specialised services that authors can use to guarantee there is no plagiarism in their documents.

If a paraphrasing service is not an option for you, you can follow the steps below to ensure that your risk of plagiarism is minimised:

  • Use direct quotes or paraphrasing (preferably paraphrasing!) whenever you need to draw on another author’s words or ideas
  • Ensure that you have credited the source by including an in-text citation and adding the corresponding entry in your reference list or bibliography 

Tips for Book Self-Publish

Once you’ve finished the hard part of writing a book, it’s fortunate to note that today’s digital technologies have made it quite straightforward to self-publish a book.

Not only can you exploit the world’s best providers of book proofreading services UK and specialised editing services, such as developmental book editing, but also you can publish easily online, network without friction, and cost-effectively market your book.

Assuming that you know what steps to follow to self-publish, this article highlights some tips for self-publishing that can make the whole process more efficient, effective, and enjoyable.

Edit your book

At the point in time when you are exploring the possibility of self-publishing, you are very likely to have already finished your book.

However, many authors fail to realise that the process of bringing your book to a finished and publishable state does not end with the writing of the book. In fact, editing – and ideally using professional editing services – is an essential task that needs to come before publication.

The reason why it is so important to edit your book before publishing is because this will help to ensure that everything is as it should be.

A strong editor will also help to refine aspects of your book that you hadn’t even focused on yet, which is another great way that editors add value at the start of the publication process.

Proofread your book

Just as we recommend working with a professional editor to ensure good structure, flow, and style in your book, you should also work with an experienced proofreader.

This will ensure that all errors and inconsistencies are eliminated from your writing before you set out on the journey to publish it.

Purchase an ISBN

Anyone can buy an International Standard Book Number (ISBN). It is advisable to do so even when self-publishing because it provides booksellers with critical information relating to your book. If you plan to sell your book, you will also need an ISBN.

Having an ISBN also makes sure your book is easily searchable and locatable on the public Internet. This can greatly improve your marketing and promotional activities, helping to propel the success of your book.

Avoid Overly Expensive Services

Given the explosive growth of the self-publishing industry, a considerable number of small businesses have entered the space seeking to provide publication-related services.

Most of the businesses that provide such services, whether small or large, are excellent and deserve your consideration, but it is important to remember that there are some bad apples.

While it is uncommon to receive a service that is plainly bad, it is becoming increasingly common for self-publishers to be overcharged for basic services like book proofreading services UK.

With this in mind, our final tip is to ensure that you conduct a reasonable amount of research before hiring companies or freelancers to work on aspects of your self-publishing project.

Is Editing Really the Most Important Part of Publishing a Book?

Before you publish your book as a first-time author, one of the important steps to remember is to use editing and proofreading services to refine your manuscript. Book proofreading services UK, along with other editorial services, can greatly increase your chances of publication and success.

If you are intending to work with a traditional publisher, hiring a professional to provide editing and proofreading services may also be mandatory.

For example, in the world of academic writing, many of the world’s most prestigious journals now require authors, scientists, and researchers to have their manuscripts professionally proofread, edited, and formatted before submission. This is increasingly common among publishers.

Although working with a professional editor and document proofreader is important, it is worth questioning whether editing is the most important aspect of publishing a book – this applies whether you are self-publishing or collaborating with a traditional publisher.

Many authors, including Stephen King and T. S. Eliot, have argued that their editors are indispensable, often making some of the most valuable contributions to their novels and books.

However, is editing really the most important aspect of publishing a book, as some suggest? 

What does editing involve?

To know whether editing is the most important part of publishing a book, let’s consider what editing involves.

If you hire a fiction or non-fiction editor to provide book proofreading services UK, or to work with you from the beginning of the writing project until the end, the main steps involved in the process are:

  • Manuscript review: The editor will review or critique your paper in a brief assessment. This will help to determine what types of editing you can benefit from.
  • Developmental editing: In developmental editing, the author and editor work collaboratively to plan, organise, and draft the manuscript.
  • Content editing: Similar to developmental editing, the author will work with the editor in content editing to improve the plot and story from the reader’s point of view.
  • Line editing: The editor moves line-by-line through the text to improve its quality and flow.
  • Copy editing: In this type of editing, the editor will apply a specified style throughout the manuscript, ensuring that everything is consistent.
  • Proofreading: This is the final stage of editing, but proofreading is often confused with editing. Proofreading involves checking for minor errors before publication.

Writers can hire editors to work with them in all of the above tasks or just a few.

What’s more important than editing?

An editor cannot write your book for you. For that, you would need a professional ghost-writer.

With this in mind, there are certainly aspects of planning, developing, and writing a book – whether fiction or non-fiction – that are more important than editing. However, this may be a slightly subjective issue.

Editors provide in-depth feedback on your manuscript, and depending on what your editing needs are, professional editors can improve the strengths of your work and find any areas to work on, refine, and enhance. So, they are clearly very useful.

Nevertheless, T. S. Eliot, the notable English poet and writer, believed that his editor was the most essential input on his writing.

Ultimately, many may disagree; they may argue that writers, compared to editors, provide the critical raw materials that influence the reception of the work. 

How to Proofread Efficiently

Every writer needs to have basic proofreading capabilities. Whether you use proofreading services or whether you choose not to take advantage of things like a proofreading service, it is always essential to be able to proofread efficiently and effectively.

The purpose of this article is to highlight several of the tips you can apply to achieve efficient proofreading. If you manage to apply these tips well, you will be able to proofread a document faster and, in many cases, more effectively.

Start with editing

The key to a quick proofreading process is to ensure that your manuscript is properly edited to begin with.

Editing services can help out here since working with a professional editor will ensure that your manuscript has been revised and altered in a thorough way.

If you edit your manuscript yourself, it is always advisable to use a proofreading service (or ask another qualified person) to complete the final proofreading phase.This is because the person who edited your document will be too familiar with it, which can lead to important and obvious errors being overlooked.

This also means that it is always best to avoid working with the same person for both proofreading and editing. That’s to say, if you are planning to use both editing and proofreading services, you should find separate professionals to work on both tasks.

Take regular breaks

This may sound counterintuitive. After all, how can it be quicker to proofread a text if the proofreader is constantly stopping and taking breaks?

Nevertheless, it has been demonstrated that the longer the time a proofreader reads and rereads the same document, the worse their ability to notice mistakes becomes.

Therefore, if you set aside your proofreading work from time to time (e.g., take a break to relax or work on another document), you can come back to it with fresh eyes.

Use shortcuts

Digital shortcuts like “Find and Replace” and spellcheckers are indispensable tools in today’s proofreading industry.

In the case of spellcheckers, these are the tools that have had the greatest impact on the proofreading profession in the last decade. Many excellent spellcheckers are also freely available, including Grammarly.

Therefore, for anyone who writes, familiarity with digital shortcuts can massively increase the efficiency and speed of your proofreading.

Keep a checklist

You can learn from your mistakes if you maintain an accurate checklist of all the errors that you often overlook. Keeping a checklist of common errors, therefore, is one of the most important and straightforward ways to speed up your ability to proofread well.

Common errors that you might end up including in your checklist include:

  • Confusions in spelling and word choice (e.g., confusions between homophones)
  • Inconsistencies in style (e.g., changing between the UK and US dialects)
  • Inconsistencies in formatting (e.g., missing page numbers)
  • Incorrect punctuation (e.g., misused – or missing – commas or apostrophes)

What Grammar Rules Can I Break, and Why?

Having a proofreader around, or using proofreading services, is always a good way to find out what grammar rules you cannot break. If you use a great proofreading service, your proofreader will also leave informative comments explaining why you broke a particular rule.

However, an interesting question is that of how many grammar rules you can break. It’s also interesting to ask why you can break these specific rules and not others. After all, with the number of grammar rules that are out there to ensure clarity and professionalism in a document, why is it possible to break some rules and not others?

The good news is that there are very few grammar errors that you need to bother yourself to fix before you send your work to a proofreader. This is because proofreaders do not require your work to be perfect before you submit it for a proofreading service.

At the same time, though, it is still worth knowing about the grammar rules that you have the option of breaking, and finding out when you can leverage this to write powerful, engaging text.

Style-related rule-breaking

For nearly all grammar mistakes, there is an example of a bestselling author who has used the mistake on purpose. This shows that if you use tools like grammar checkers without thinking, or if you use a low-quality proofreading service, you could end up receiving a sub-par document.

Examples of style-related rule-breaking typically involve using:

  • Sentence fragments
  • Run-on sentences
  • Split infinitives
  • Compound sentences ignoring commas
  • Polysyndeton

Each of the above deserves an article on its own, but consider looking into these examples of style-related rule-breaking to see how you can incorporate them into your own manuscripts.

Use of initial conjunctions

One common grammar rule states: Never start a sentence with a conjunction.

If you stick to this rule all the time, you will always avoid sentences that have a conjunction at the outset of the sentence, such as the second sentence in the following: “Professors used to know better. And those days are over now.”

However, in good writing, it is often natural to include sentences that begin with initial conjunctions. This is because great writing tends to reflect spoken language, and when speaking, people frequently begin sentences with conjunctions like “and,” “but,” and “so.”

Avoid personal pronouns

A few decades ago, the use of specific nouns (e.g., “the author”) usually took the place of personal pronouns (e.g., “I” or “he”) in many types of writing, particularly scientific writing, technical writing, and journal articles.

Due to this, a sort of rule (or convention) developed, which grew in academic writing and persists in many style guides, that it is better to avoid the use of “I” and other personal pronouns in favor of specific nouns.

For example, for a research paper, the original rule was to avoid saying, “In my study, I found out …” Instead, the rule dictated that you exclude all personal pronouns: “In this study, the author found …”

Today, personal pronouns are routinely used in various forms of writing. This includes scientific and technical writing, as well as some journal articles (e.g., case reports), and it also characterises the style used in blog writing, business communication, and other related areas. 

What Are the Stages of Book Editing?

Ensuring your book comes across as professional is key for a positive publication process. For this reason, working with a professional editor, proofreader, or ghost writer with book proofreading services UK – although it may seem like an unfamiliar activity – is a regular task that professionals, businesses, and researchers engage in around the world.

Photo by kira schwarz on Pexels.com

Editing and proofreading services can go a long way when preparing a manuscript for publication. Along with this, if you work with a professional and experienced book proofreader who provides book proofreading services UK, your book will benefit significantly from it.

Whether or not you decide to use an editor other than yourself, there is a correct and incorrect way to approach the process of editing your manuscript. The purpose of this article is to guide you through the phases of book editing, which can help you to streamline the process of editing your next book.

Developmental Editing

Developmental editing is often referred to as manuscript appraisal or conceptual editing. The process begins by specifying the high-level structure of your book. For this reason, if you work with a developmental editor at the earliest opportunity, this can have a great impact on getting you started off on the correct track.

A key task to focus on in this initial stage of book editing is to ensure that each concept in the book satisfies the following criteria:

  • Engaging
  • Relevant
  • Useful

Applying these criteria – ideally with an editor’s second opinion – at the earliest stage of writing your book will save you a substantial amount of time at a later date. Otherwise, you may spend a lot of time writing and rewriting entire chapters that are edited out of the document later.

Assessment Editing

In this second stage of editing, an editor – whether that’s the author or a service provided with editing and proofreading services – ensures that the book, after being written, has remained on the originally intended track.

The core issues to focus on in this stage are:

  • The flow of the text is reasonable
  • No important elements are missing
  • The content is engaging, relevant, and useful

Content and Line Editing

At the beginning of this phase, the content editing process is similar to assessment editing, but it is applied to individual chapters. Therefore, the content editor ensures that incomplete or missing chapter sections are addressed, that the concept flow inside every chapter is smooth, and that the tone of voice of the chapters is consistent.

In line editing, the main aim is to guarantee that every sentence has the intended impact. For this reason, line editors focus on the following:

  • Overuse of buzz words and jargon
  • Unclear text
  • Long-winded sentences

Copyediting and Proofreading

In the final stages of editing a book, the gritty procedure of correcting spelling mistakes, grammar errors, punctuation problems, and missing words is applied. The final layout of the book is also decided on and applied.

Types of Proofreading Tools and How to Use Them

When it comes to proofreading tools, the first tool that most people think of is Microsoft Word’s spell checker. After that, another common proofreading tool that many people use today is professional proofreading services, where a human proofreader completes the check rather than an artificial intelligence (AI).

However, Microsoft Word is pretty basic today. This is especially true when compared to more advanced editing apps such as Grammarly. Even though Microsoft Word has received several updates, including some as recent as August 2021, it is really just a spell checker, whereas Grammarly includes features such as spell checking, grammar checking, style checking, and even plagiarism checking.

While Microsoft Word is somewhat limited in its capabilities compared to the other proofreading tools available today, the main features that you should look for in a proofreading tool are:

  • Spell checking
  • Grammar checking
  • Style checking
  • Plagiarism checking

Especially if professional-grade proofreading services are unavailable, authors should look for proofreading tools that offer each of the four features mentioned above.

Altogether, there are four main categories of proofreading tools that have the above-mentioned four features. When you integrate one of these tools into your proofreading workflow, you will be in a better position, to check and correct for any spelling errors, grammar mistakes, plagiarism, and style consistency throughout your file.

The four main categories are discussed separately in the rest of this article.

Image: Proofreading tools are available as desktop apps, browser extensions, and more

1. Chrome browser extensions

Instead of making use of the professional proofreading service, you can use a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. These browser extensions are useful because they allow you to check for mistakes in your writing wherever you are in the online world. You can install proofreading extensions for chrome as you would all other browser extensions.

2. Online proofreading tools

A range of companies have developed freely available proofreading apps that can be accessed as websites. For example, Grammarly and other companies host websites where you can paste text into simple text boxes to receive feedback on spelling, grammar, style, and other issues.

With these websites, all you need is an Internet connection to improve your written work. However, because most of these websites are free, you tend to get what you pay for; that’s to say, there is a significant gap in quality between a professional proofreading service and these tools.

Image: Online proofreading tools are often available for free

3. Mobile and desktop proofreading tools

Similar to online proofreading tools, which are accessible via the Internet, it is also possible to install proofreading tools as locally available software on a smartphone (iOS or Android) or desktop computer (Windows, Mac, and Linux).

Many of these apps aren’t usually connected to the Internet, and so they can’t leverage some of the AI-powered strengths of web apps like Grammarly. However, one of their advantages is that mobile and desktop proofreading tools can be used without Internet access.

4. Microsoft Word add-ons

If you are a writer who regularly uses Microsoft Word, installing proofreading tools as add-ons directly into Microsoft Word can be a great time-saver. With Microsoft Word add-ons, you can receive suggestions on spelling, grammar, and style straight into your word document as you type.

How to Improve your Business Writing

If you fail to make an impression in your business writing, or if you fail to be informative, the stakes are often high. For this reason, many organizations today recognise the value of professional proofreading services in helping them to communicate effectively with customers, suppliers, and team members around the firm.

One quick way to improve your business writing is to hire an in-house writing team. Teams like this are in common use today, especially within technology companies that need to produce high-quality documentation, or in advertisers needing attractive, engaging copy. Freelance editors, proofreaders, and writers are also regularly used by the leading companies worldwide.

As a case in point, just as chefs need to write down their recipes carefully and accurately, this is also true for major technology companies. Interestingly, it highlights the need for clear, high-quality business writing in these settings, as well as the high degree of dependency of these firms on qualified writers and, in many cases, professional proofreading or paraphrasing services.

In these companies, such as Intel or Arm, it is necessary for the organizations to “document” their intellectual property (IP) products, which involves hiring technical writers and editors to write down and maintain sets of instructions about how to use the IP. Whether through in-house teams or professional proofreading services, the documentation that these companies and others in different industries produce depends on leveraging trained and experienced writers and editors.

Whatever perspective you are writing from in business, there are a few tried-and-tested rules you can apply – other than those discussed above, such as using an in-house team of writers or professional proofreading – to improve your business writing immediately. These include:

  • Ensure you make an impression
  • Avoid overuse of text
  • Don’t be vague
  • Don’t forget the reader

The first of these, ensuring you make an impression, tries to grab the reader’s attention. This guarantees that you will be able to communicate your point quickly and clearly, all the while engaging the reader.

It also leads to the second point: avoiding the overuse of text. Working with a proofreader or editor can ensure your text is as concise as possible – it’s always worthwhile since it helps you to achieve the previous point, thus ensuring you make an impression.

Third, being vague is to be avoided, and you should aim to quantify the statements you make wherever possible. When you use vague sentences, it reduces the impact of the text and can lead to misinterpretation. For example, avoid statements like, “It is commonly known that …” Instead, use an expression that indicates who precisely knows.

Finally, forgetting the reader leads to the worst consequences compared to any of the above-mentioned issues. If you can avoid doing just this in your text, it will have a substantial improvement. In particular, you can ask:

  • How much information does the reader need?
  • How much detail is the reader interested in?
  • What format would the reader find useful?
  • What is the main message I want to leave the reader with?

Working closely with a proofreader is a quick and affordable way to polish your latest document, ensuring you don’t make any of the above-mentioned errors. This can immediately and effortlessly improve your writing.

What Does an Editor Really do?

The task of an editor is to enhance your writing in a variety of ways. Each editing service is different, depending on the service provider or freelancer you are working with, but editing services and the editors that provide them share important common aspects.

This article outlines what these common aspects are and, in the process, clarifies what a professional editor really does to improve your written work.

1. An editor avoids complex verb tenses

In English, the only two verb tenses you ever need to use are the simple past and the simple present. For example:

  • They ran (simple past) or they run (simple present)
  • I jumped (simple past) or I jump (simple present)

However, writers commonly use complex verb tenses, which obscure the meaning of the text (especially in long sentences) and lead to the inclusion of unnecessary words. For example:

  • They may have been running
  • I will have jumped

The last two examples, which are variants of the first two examples (with, of course, more complex verb tenses), may well be more accurate – depending on the context – in capturing the precise meaning of the time surrounding the action that took place.

However, they are difficult for readers to process. For this reason, one of the things a professional editor does when they perform an editing and proofreading service involves simplifying your language in, in this way, achieving greater clarity.

2. An editor adds cohesion phrases

Many writers produce difficult-to-understand text. This can be bothersome for readers because it creates friction and, moreover, means they have to spend more time reading, re-reading, and parsing the text.

One way that editors make it easier for readers to parse text, particularly when it is complex (e.g., in academic writing or scientific articles) is by including so-called cohesion phrases (also known as connectives or linking phrases). For example:

  • As a result
  • Due to this
  • Consequently
  • However
  • Similarly

As the literal meanings of these words and phrases indicate, using them allows the reader to see the links/connections between adjacent sentences (thus the name connectives or linking phrases). Good editors know how and where to put these words and phrases to ensure better readability.

3. An editor uses a varied vocabulary

Even the best writers end up in a rut at some point. They may find that they use the same words, phrases, and expressions repeatedly. If this happens to too great an extent in a document, it can be distracting – and potentially even annoying – for your reader.

Another important issue that high-quality editors focus on, therefore, is to ensure sufficient variety in terms of the vocabulary used in your document. The keyword here is “sufficient,” which is – of course – not to say “excessive.” Excessively varied language can be, in many ways, just as distracting and annoying as excessively static language.

What are the Steps to Getting Your Book Published?

Publishing a book is no small task. The process usually starts with editing your manuscript, continues with proofreading, and ends with a lengthy and drawn-out period of negotiating with a traditional publishing house or, alternatively, preparing your manuscript for online self-publishing.

In the earlier stages of preparing and publishing your book, there are professional editing and proofreading services available, along with book proofreading services UK, that can streamline the process and make it much more manageable. However, many authors, especially those who are seeking to publish their first book, are unsure about where to go from there.

The purpose of this article, therefore, is to outline the main steps that you can take to get your book published. Assuming that you’ve already used book proofreading services UK or editing and proofreading services to finalise your book, simply follow the steps below and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a published author.

Step 1. Find an agent

When looking for an agent, it’s important to note that each one typically specialises in a certain area. Therefore, you should do some research to find an agent whose specialisation is similar to the area that your book covers.

Step 2. Write to an agent

After you have found a suitable agent, you should prepare a query letter with a synopsis of your completed book. If you are publishing a non-fiction book as opposed to a fiction book, then you should submit a book proposal rather than a synopsis.

Step 3. Submit to other agents

It is common never to hear back from agents. Also, if you are lucky enough to hear back from an agent, chances are that it will take several months. This is because most agents are overwhelmed by the number of requests they receive from authors. With this in mind, you should tailor your initial query letter and send it to other relevant agents.

Step 4. Adapt based on rejections and continue submitting to other agents

Whenever you receive feedback from an agent along with a rejection, it is imperative that you adapt your book or your query letter. This will vastly increase your chances of being accepted by the next agent. At the same time, keep submitting your tailored query letters to new agents.

Step 5. Choose a good agent for you and listen to them

If you receive an offer from an agent, you should first check that you’re satisfied with the idea of working with them as a partner, and then you should listen as closely to them as possible. Most agents have worked closely with publishers, and so they are likely to be able to offer valuable advice (e.g., about editing your book).

Step 6. Choose a good publisher for you and listen to them

Just as we advised that you should listen to your agent, it’s also important that you respect the inside knowledge about the market that most publishers have. When working with a publisher, it’s important to remain flexible, but that doesn’t mean dropping every idea about how you wanted your book to shape up.

Step 7. Prepare for launch

Even after your book has been accepted by a publisher, it can take several months for it to be published. In the meantime, you should build up your social media presence in preparation for the eventual launch.

Step 8. Publicity, marketing, and reader engagement

Once your book is out there, take a moment to reflect on and appreciate how far you’ve come. With that done, you should continue seeking out any publicity and marketing opportunities you can find, and – perhaps most important – you should interact with your readers. This can provide valuable insights for your next project, after which the whole cycle starts again from step 1.

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