Credibility and reputation are the values people must follow to become successful and respectable individuals. Everyone tends to believe in what you say or do when you are known as a credible person in your circle. Conversely, you don’t get the respect you wish for if you are a non-credible person. Regarding academics and professionals, plagiarism can damage your credibility and reputation. It can ruin your image like nothing else and undo your years of hard work within seconds.
This blog post will discuss how plagiarism hurts your standing in your circle. But before jumping on to that, we will see what comes underneath the umbrella term of plagiarism and how you can detect it.
What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the imitation of the words and ideas of others to present them as yours. However, it is a broader phenomenon not confined to one specific definition.
This can involve using someone else’s words without citing them, paraphrasing their work without giving them credit, using their ideas without credit, or submitting their work as your own. The ethical and academic qualities of intellectual honesty, integrity, and originality are all violated by plagiarism, which is a significant moral and academic offense.
However, if you can take some advanced measures, you can shun the chances of plagiarism in your work.
How to Detect Plagiarism?
Plagiarism hurts your credibility and reputation badly. Moreover, it has multiple consequences which can dent your progress big time. Therefore, it is mandatory to determine instances of plagiarism in your work before submitting it to the concerned authority, whether in the academic or professional setting.
Following are some steps that you can use to check plagiarism in your work:
Thoroughly Review Your Work
Once you finish the writing part of any work, you should thoroughly review it to ensure that you have provided proper in-text citations and references. Then, while proofreading your work, if you observe any line or sentence that does not seem to be yours, you can deduce that it is plagiarized.
That’s so because while penning down a paper, article, or report, we seek guidance from different sources and unintentionally plagiarize multiple sources. So, if you see any such instance, you should instantly give the due credit to the source to be on the safer side.
Scan Your Work with A Plagiarism Checker
After manually proofreading your work and rectifying all the errors that can make your work plagiarized, you should check plagiarism of your content through a plagiarism checker. That’s needed because it is nearly impossible to eradicate the possibility of plagiarism by marking mistakes with the naked eye.
So, when you paste your written material into a tool to check for plagiarism, it performs a sentence-wise analysis of your work. That means it compares your work with billions of web pages to prevent plagiarism in your career. Then, it provides you with an output that can be relied upon. Thus, if your work gets the originality stamp from a plagiarism detector, you can forward it for further proceedings without any fear.
On the contrary, you should make those amendments if it suggests some changes. Otherwise, you will have to face the consequences.
Effect of Plagiarism On Your Credibility and Reputation
It is crucial to appropriately credit and reference any sources utilized in your work to preserve your credibility and the trust of your readers or audience. Otherwise, the following are some losses you will have to suffer in case you get accused of plagiarism.
People Stop Trusting You
The first thing you must suffer when your name gets tainted with plagiarism is the loss of trust. It means nobody tends to believe in your skills and commitment, even if you do something original and extraordinary, once you get noticed for committing plagiarism. It is because plagiarism is considered a severe breach of moral and ethical standards. It shows that you don’t have an iota of respect for the work of others, and you feel it right to bypass others for your good.
Therefore, undoubtedly, you get a momentary benefit, but you need to catch up in the long run, which can be daunting for your career development.
No One Recognizes Your Work
Another horrifying outcome of committing plagiarism is the loss of recognition in your workplace setting. It means that people start to look at you as a non-competent and vile person instead of treating you as a committed and competent individual. As a result, you don’t get the respect you deserve even if you do everything perfectly later on because once forgotten is denied forever in the contemporary world. That’s so because there is cut-throat competition everywhere nowadays, and hundreds of individuals are ready to take place once you make any mistake.
Therefore, you must stay extra-conscious and do your work with utmost honesty and passion to maintain your position wherever you are. Otherwise, you will suffer very badly.
You Feel Embarrassed
As plagiarism involves taking credit for someone else’s ideas or works without adequately attributing them, it can make a person feel ashamed. That’s so because their behavior is perceived as dishonest and unethical. It may also result in serious repercussions, including diminished credibility, harm to one’s reputation, and in certain situations, legal action.
These consequences may result in a loss of respect and trust from classmates, coworkers, and even the broader public, which can devastate one’s confidence and self-esteem.
Moreover, plagiarism contradicts the fundamental principles of honesty and integrity, which are necessary to create a successful and satisfying life. Therefore, the people who commit this vile act do not make progress, as one mistake keeps haunting them for the rest of their lives.
Final Remarks
Plagiarism is a big red flag that should be avoided if you want to go places in your life and career. If you do original and creative work, you reach the destination where you deserve to be. But, on the other hand, if you take advantage of others’ hard work, you can only go so far with crutches under your arm as they provide support to walk, not to run. So, those who know how to run will leave you behind sooner than later.
