Plagiarism refers to the use of materials produced by other people without acknowledging that the data was derived from them. In other words, plagiarism is the violation of a person’s or an organization’s intellectual property. There are several types of plagiarism, each of which can be recognized in a text. Namely, direct copying of paragraphs and excerpts, the use of views or thoughts, and a paraphrase of metaphors and other literary devices created by another author. To recognize such cases, it is possible to apply special technologies that are available online and are quite effective in revealing plagiarized sentences and passages (“Plagiarism 101,” 2015). If some phrases are a direct copy or similar with those in another writing without making a reference to it, there is plagiarism. In case some ideas and opinions are presented without clarifying an author and the publication year, this is also plagiarism.
Evaluating the given passage for plagiarism, one may note that the student made a good attempt to avoid plagiarism. All the sentences and ideas are paraphrased, and there are no copypasted passages. The fact that the student mentioned the author, the year, and the page also shows the intent to prevent the case of plagiarism. However, it seems that some opinions are misinterpreted. For example, it is not correct that “consumers must trust” in the absolute safety of results presented by the research. Instead, it is better to write that it is difficult to assess the conflict of interest, as stated in the initial passage. The following sentence “although biomedical research incorporates rigorous scientific rules and is often critically scrutinized by peers” is directly plagiarized by the student as follows: “biomedical researchers incorporate strict rules of science into their work, which is examined by peers”.
Using the paraphrasing technique, it is better to write that “there are systematic scientific rules used by biomedical scholars that often become the object of a critical examination by peers”. It seems that the last sentence needs to be restructured and some words are to be replaced by more unique ones to prevent plagiarism. For example, “warp,” “drawbacks,” “skim,” and so on. The use of the mentioned words makes the new text too close to the original work. There is a need to replace them with synonyms or change the phrases. As for the structure of the last sentence, it is similar to the one used by another writer. Therefore, it would be better to organize the enumeration in bullet points or, for example, in a different order. In sum, it is possible to conclude that the second paragraph includes some extent of plagiarism and needs to be improved in terms of the academic reliability.
To preserve the academic integrity, all students are required to avoid plagiarism. One of the ways to ensure it is to always remember the rules of citation and quotation. Regardless of whether one uses direct or indirect citation, there is a need to specify the author, year, and the source. Also, one should avoid copy / paste in his or her writing and follow the rules of paraphrasing. Every idea, opinion, metaphor, and other stylistic means are to be properly cited. The better students are familiar with the topic of their papers, the more likely they will express thoughts in their own words. The more sources they examine, the better they will understand the subject, being sure how to cite the sources used.
Reference
Plagiarism 101. (2015). Web.