How to avoid plagiarism?

It is actually quite simple: you will never commit plagiarism if you clearly state the work of others by accurately working with references, citations and paraphrasing. Citing literature is essential in scholarly writing. By citing you make clear that the information you used comes from another source it allows the reader to be able to track down the source. To be able to cite correctly should make accurate notes on literature you have found and use these from the beginning when working on your publication. 

A correct reference combines the following elements:  

1. A source. This is where you obtain your information from. Examples of these can be books, journals articles and video’s.
2. A reference. This is the information about your source. Examples of this can be the title, the author, the year it was published or in which journal the publication was published.

You can present information coming from a source in two ways: you can do it in your own words (paraphrasing) or you can quote. Quotations should be used sparsely. If you quote you must make it clear for the reader that he is reading a quotation. You do this by using quotation marks or by making a block quotation and by mentioning the page(s) where the quotation is to be found in the source.

The most used citation style in academia is the APA style. More information about how to use this style when citing your sources can be found in the publication manual (DeCleene & Fogo, 2012).