What is Patchwork Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is one of the most discussed topics on the web in recent times. You might have seen thousands of plagiarism-related posts, articles, and news on various online platforms. There are thousands of people who find plagiarism an illegal activity that can lead a person to face serious punishments.

Plagiarism is basically stealing someone’s information and presenting it as their own creation. This act of stealing others’ work is a serious crime that no one appreciates. Therefore, it is essential for all of us to take appropriate steps to prevent plagiarism in our work.

Patchwork Plagiarism: A Brief Introduction

Plagiarism is a broad term that occurs in many ways. Patchwork plagiarism is one of the most followed types of plagiarism by copycats. In this practice, copycats duplicate content from multiple sources and combine them to create a single article. Patchwork plagiarism is also called mosaic plagiarism and quilted plagiarism. In simple words, patchwork plagiarism involves:

● Collecting information from multiple sources.
● Relocating phrases from them.
● Passing it off as your work.

How Is Patchwork Plagiarism Different from Paraphrasing?

Many people deliberately duplicate others’ information and present it as their creation. However, a number of people commit this act unintentionally. Reusing their own published work, or missing citations are a few major reasons for accidental plagiarism. But, when it comes to patchwork plagiarism, it is considered the most severe example of intentional plagiarism.

The question that might be coming to your mind right now would be why patchwork plagiarism is considered the most offensive type of plagiarism. Well, the answer to this question is quite simple. This act of stealing others’ work is extremely hard to detect than other types of plagiarism, and that’s why it is a more serious crime. The penalties for patchwork plagiarism include zero on a project or expulsion from the college.

Many people consider patchwork similar to paraphrasing which is not true. Paraphrasing is entirely a different process that doesn’t include any kind of stealing of information at all. Paraphrasing takes an idea and rewrites it to make a new version of the same article. But, if you don’t give credit to the original author and copy others’ work, it will be taken as academic dishonesty. On the other hand, patchwork plagiarism is duplicating phrases from multiple sources of the same article.

Examples of Patchwork Plagiarism

There are different ways to commit patchwork plagiarism. The most used methods for practicing this unethical activity are shared below.

● Rearranging Sentences

One of the most followed practices for committing patchwork plagiarism is through collecting different pieces of text from multiple sources and combining them to make a paragraph. For instance, a person copies a few sentences from a source and pastes them into his article. Then, he moves to another source, copies a few phrases that he finds relevant to the content, and pastes them into his new content.

The copied paragraph sentences are combined and rearranged in a different order to give readers the impression that the text is fresh and original. This practice falls under patchwork plagiarism and may cause severe punishments.

● Borrowing Phrases

Borrowing phrases is one of the most common reasons that end up plagiarism. Borrowing phrases are sentences used without any citation and are considered patchwork plagiarism. Finding such sentences in content is extremely difficult because it’s mixed in with the writer’s own words. However, the assistance of an advanced plagiarism checker is beneficial for discovering instances of patchwork plagiarism in a text. Furthermore, the use of a web-based facility enables students, professional writers, and publishers to detect any duplication in their writing and supports appealing content.

How to Avoid Patchwork Plagiarism?

There are no hard and fast rules to avoid patchwork plagiarism. Following the simple writing process is enough to create fresh and unique content. In case you are not familiar with the standard way of writing content, here are a few suggestions for you to generate plagiarism free content.

● Take Notes

Research is the most critical part of content creation. Exploring various online platforms in order to collect relevant information regarding your topic is an essential part of writing. However, there are instances where writers unintentionally duplicate a phrase in their work. This ultimately causes plagiarism and makes them vulnerable to various penalties. This problem can easily be countered by taking notes on your research. This will reduce the chances of accidental plagiarism in your writing. This approach enables you to plan the content strategy, which ultimately enhances your productivity.

● Write Original Material

The easiest way to avoid patchwork plagiarism is to write in your own words. Relying on our skills instead of duplicating others’ words will always save you from facing any penalty. Using the key points you have prepared while taking notes in your writing helps you craft an appealing and detailed article. This approach also helps you in ensuring you haven’t missed any important points. Writing original content using your own vocabulary is the best way to impress your targeted audience and avoid any punishment.

● Cite Sources

Giving credit to the author of the original text in your article is another important element that must be followed seriously. There are instances where people have to face serious penalties for committing plagiarism just because they forgot to cite the source properly. Citing every source you copied from another text in quotation marks will save you from the charges of plagiarism. Many people face plagiarism penalties even after citing the source of text because of inappropriate citation style. Using the standard citation style like Chicago, APA, or MLA is highly advised to prevent yourself from any hassles.

● Use Plagiarism Checker

The assistance of modern utilities is another great way of detecting patchwork plagiarism. We all know that finding instances of patchwork plagiarism in content is a difficult task. Therefore, the manual method of detecting plagiarism in writing may consume extensive time and effort. Alternatively, using a plagiarism checker API will reduce the efforts and provide you with quick and reliable results. The results will provide you with a detailed plagiarism check report that includes percentage-wise results, source of copied text (if any), and sentence-wise results.

Final Words

In the last analysis, plagiarism in any form is dangerous for students, researchers, and even professional writers. Patchwork plagiarism is the most severe form of intentional plagiarism in which a writer copies content and assembles it to form a new article. That’s why the penalties for patchwork plagiarism are also more severe than other types of plagiarism. The information stated in this blog post would have guided you about the difference between paraphrasing and patchwork plagiarism. Also, the suggestions shared in this post will certainly enable you to avoid patchwork plagiarism.