How to Make a Plagiarism Defense Strategy

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Date: April 8, 2019

Plagiarism is certainly a bad practice that not only imperils your own academic repute, but also hinders the scientific discovery process. Often plagiarism may even initiate legal actions if the writers decide that the work actually done by them is being misused.

However, in academic context, plagiarism is usually not viewed as a legal breach, but as an extremely unethical conduct. Have you recently been accused of Plagiarism? Knowing how to make a plagiarism defence strategy is important as it can protect you from being expelled or punished.

First of all, you should NEVER ADMIT

intentional plagiarism, because this might be suicidal. In case, you admit it, your College or University can do whatever they feel is most appropriate as per them, which may even include failing your degree. There may be 2 major results of the plagiarism finding process. In 50% of scenarios, your University will DETECT and can PROVE that you’ve committed plagiarism. In other half of cases, the Universities may just SUSPECT you for having plagiarized but cannot prove it without you voluntarily admitting to have plagiarized.

As a rule, Colleges and Universities can suspect based on following:

a) The style and language of writing

you utilized in the suspected paper are different from those that you usually employ. It is particularly applicable to foreign students whose first language is not English. Usually, professors can spot the discrepancies easily, as the text appears to be too perfect and rich in specialist phraseology and academic jargon. In such a scenario, your strategy of defence could be to say that you requested a native to proofread your assignment before submission for making it more reader-friendly and professional. It is absolutely legal, taking into consideration the fact that a lot of Universities penalize the English language mistakes.

b) The use of resources or models,

which were not communicated by your teacher or were not available in your course or library. Your strategy defence here can be to mention that you have been doing some additional research or reading and/or have a friend enrolled in a different college or university and these details were kindly given to you this friend. However, keep in mind that if the matter is prolonged, your academic commission or tutor might be asking you questions about the resources that were helpful for you to write your paper. You need to make sure that you are ready to answer these kinds of questions by meticulously preparing for the meeting. You should at least know all the titles utilized the authors’ names and the quotes from each author.

c) Sometimes,

you might realize that you’ve plagiarized, even prior to getting a feedback from your teacher. In such a case, you are advised to approach your teacher immediately and tell them that you had submitted a wrong copy of the paper accidentally. Try to contact them about it electronically, so that you can provide some material evidence if you need it for supporting your position.

Finally, remember, whatever you do, you must remain calm, cool, and collected during your meeting with the commission or tutor. Be determined, confident but always polite, because arrogant behavior is only going to do you disservice.

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