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Plagiarism is a huge issue in academics. And it’s also widely misunderstood by students. Plagiarism basically occurs when students intentionally or unintentionally fail to give proper credit to their sources.

The key word here is “unintentionally.” More often than not, plagiarism happens unintentionally. And while the consequences are the same, the fact that it can happen by accident due to a lack of knowledge or technique, make it unlikely that instructors and professors will automatically regard those particular students as cheaters.

The important thing is to learn from your first mistake and to never repeat it again. Get a tutor and do what it takes to really learn how to cite your sources properly and use information responsibly. The sidebar of this blog has a couple of good resources to brush up on your plagiarism knowledge.

Plagiarism avoidance tip list:

• Use quotation marks and in-text citations properly. If you do not quote your sources or cite them in the text correctly, even if you have a Bibliography or Works Cited page at the end, you can be noted for plagiarism.
• Are you including some data or statistics? Cite them. A clear signal that something is plagiarized is when seemingly random knowledge appears in a paper without any reference to a source.
• Provide proper balance. Is more than 30% of your essay coming from an outside source? That’s a warning sign that your essay is imbalanced and you might be letting another source speak for you. While this isn’t always plagiarism, it can lead to other issues that result in major losses in points for the assignment.
• Beware of overly relying on “common knowledge”. Brush up on what it means to include “common knowledge.” There are actually very few pieces of information that can be incorporated as “common knowledge” without citing your source. Knowledge is not as common as you think, and just because you know it doesn’t mean everyone else knows it.
• Get a tutor. There is a stigma attached to getting a tutor, and it’s one of the silliest things that sets students back. A tutor can be used by anyone – weak and strong students – just to gain another perspective and even provide a “study partner.” Use all your resources to get the most out of your education.
• Your instructor is not out to get you. When professors check for plagiarism, they are doing their duty to the school and to the broader academic world. It is not a personal vendetta.
• Your instructor does not “hate” you now. Professors should not and do not attach personal judgments toward students. It’s a business relationship. So do not disappear or shrink away if you make the plagiarism mistake. Work with your instructor, tutors and advisors to make sure you understand what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future. Everyone is on the same page when it comes to the desire to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Time and time again, I see students resist the need to use a tutor. Students, it seems, would rather see their grades spiral downward rather than use a FREE tutor provided by the school. Often, students seem embarrassed to work with a tutor, thinking that it makes them look stupid.

Well let me tell you, those failing grades aren’t doing much for a student’s self esteem. So why not suck it up and get a tutor? Athletes have coaches and homeowners seek out help to finish renovations. What’s the big deal about getting a tutor to help boost your grades for something as important as succeeding school and getting a good job?

Top myths about getting a tutor:

• Using a tutor will make me look stupid. Uh, what’s smarter than getting the right help at the right time? It’s smart to develop a strategy so you can succeed – not just in school but at anything.
• Tutors are expensive. Most schools have FREE tutoring services of some kind, and even if you have to pay, it’s usually cheap.
• All tutors will treat me like I’m stupid. Get over it. Tutors are overworked and underpaid. They don’t sit around talking about stupid students. And if you get a bad vibe from one tutor, just go to another one. It’s not like you’re married to them.
• A tutor hasn’t worked if I don’t get an “A.” What? Just because you get a tutor doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to start getting perfect scores. Why would anyone expect that? When you go to the gym to lose weight, do you expect to reach your ideal size after one visit? Come on. It takes work over the long term. Anything important takes effort and commitment.
• Signing up for tutoring will automatically put me in the “slow” category at school. Typically in college, there is no slow category. You either make it on the regular track or you get out. Getting a tutor does not put a black mark on your record, and most of the time, your professors are totally unaware of your life outside their classroom.

If you’re really freaked out about getting a tutor, don’t use a professional at first. Use a friend or family member who is really good at your weak topic. Join a study group with other people in your class who are star performers. Either way, get down and get the job done. Too much pride can hold you back.

Now that you’re in college, don’t expect to get extra points for telling the instructor, “But I tried really hard.” Unfortunately, you’re now past the point where that kind of excuse is acceptable. It’s okay when a fourth grader uses that excuses, but a college student is expected to work hard on all assignments, and if they still don’t make the grade, then they need to simply work harder next time.

Reasons why “trying hard” isn’t a valid excuse:

• It’s about the results. In business, they judge you by your results and not by your effort. After all, if a contractor botches your kitchen renovation but then says, “but I tried really hard,” would you still pay the bill?
• It makes you sound immature. When a student tries to use the “trying hard” excuse, an instructor immediately wonders whether that student is prepared for college. These types of excuse are like neon signs above your head that say, “I am not prepared for this,” or “I don’t know what is expected in college.”
• Did you really “try hard”? Ask yourself the following questions to see if you really did all you could on the assignment: Did you start the assignment weeks in advance? Did you ask the instructor focused questions when you didn’t understand something? Did you include all the required elements in the assignment? If you still didn’t understand the assignment, did you get a tutor or go to a Writing or Math Center? If you did none of these things, you didn’t really try all that hard.

If you want a high grade, you have to be willing to “go that extra mile.” And sometimes, in tough classes you actually will go that extra mile and still not do as well as you expected. That’s all part of the learning process. You can’t ace everything, and that’s okay.

Remember to see your education in context across the span of your educational career, instead of focusing on one class. Sometimes, you will barely pass a class, and while you’ll wish you did better, the important thing is that you made it through to the next phase.

You’re not expected to be an expert in everything, but you will be expected to do your best to problem solve, adapt, and tap into your inner strength to persevere. After all, getting the best from yourself is indeed part of the college experience as well.

It’s never too early to prepare for final exams

Too often, students panic at the end of the term because most — or all — of their classes have a final exam or final project requirement. Students can save themselves a lot of anguish if they took an incremental approach to studying.

Final exam study tips:

• Take final exam notes every week. After every lesson or class, take notes of key terms and study topics in a final exam folder or on index cards. Build on this collection each week, and by the end of the term, you’ll have a neat set of study guides for the final exam.
• Schedule a weekly review of materials. At the end of each school week, go back and review the major elements you’ve learned. This summary helps you retain information and etch it into longer term memory.
• Collect all your old quizzes. Regular quizzes during the term give students a clear guide about the types of questions your instructor is likely to include on a longer exam. Reviewing older quizzes and tests provide you with good practice for what lies ahead.
• Play the guessing game. Before every test, as you study and prepare, try to see if you can predict the types of topics and questions likely to appear on the exam. Make educated guesses based on the instructor’s style, focus and lecture points. If you practice this enough, you’ll find that you will likely get better and better at identifying key study points because you’ll learn to “think like the professor.”
• Come prepared to final exam reviews. Quite often, professors will have final exam study sessions. It’s amazing how many students come to these sessions and just sit there when an instructor asks if there are any questions about topics covered in the class. Come prepared to such study sessions with specific questions about things you did not understand. An instructor will rarely tell you what’s on an exam, but the more intelligent and genuinely interested students seem, the more inclined an instructor will be to slip in a few hints. If students seem uninterested and passive, instructors often pull back on the hints as well.

Every school has some kind of Web page, bulletin board, or announcement area where they post and share important deadlines and information. It’s amazing how many students simply ignore this integral resource, and this can cost them dearly when it comes to their grades, financial aid, and even graduation requirements.

Looking over my student records over the past several years, I’ve found that it’s clear that a majority of student mistakes could have been avoided if they had just read the class announcements more diligently. It sounds overly simple to “check your messages and class announcements,” but it can be the key to performing your best and avoiding huge time-wasters.

Some Common Things Posted in Class Announcements:

• School deadlines for financial aid: If you don’t get your forms properly filed on time, you’ll probably end up blocked from your classes at some point. And that’s a huge setback that could have been avoided.
• Tips for assignments: Almost all instructors post reminders and tips on how to approach upcoming assignments. Students who do not read announcements can miss explanations of instructions that directly impact their grades.
• Updates and changes to assignments: Sometimes, assignments are moved, updated, or cancelled. If you don’t read your assignments, you can spend a lot of time working on assignments that don’t exist anymore.
• Grading announcements: Instructors often let students know when grades have been posted. This means you can immediately review instructor comments on your past work so you can avoid repeating errors in future work.
• Career Development seminars and activities: It’s a shame that students do not take more advantage of resources that they can only get while in school. Career Development departments work overtime to get you prepared for your career, and they’re an underutilized resource.

Quite often, online courses will require you to submit documents in a specific format. Some platforms will be comfortable for you; others will be very new. If you are using software or programs that are less familiar to you, make sure you take them for a test drive. Here are a few ways to consider.

Assignment Test Drive Tips:

• E-mail the document to several friends. If one or some of them cannot open your file, you have a problem. This will help you troubleshoot your file format to make sure your instructor will get a version that’s readable.
• Send a test draft to the instructor. There is nothing wrong with submitting a draft of your work early, just to make sure the instructor can take a peek to see if there is anything major wrong with it. Most instructors will appreciate that you’re thinking ahead. Just give the instructor at least 4 business days to review. You’re not the only student or class they teach; so it’s good to extend that courtesy whenever possible.
• E-mail yourself. If you’re short on time, e-mail documents to yourself to see if they look right once they are sent over the digital lines. This is not only a good test run; it’s also a nice way to backup your files in case your computer decides to die on you.

Every time we start a new term or a new semester, what we do on the first day of class can help make the rest of the term run more smoothly.

Term start tip list for students:

• Keep class materials organized. On the first day of class, you’ll get a lot of information including a course syllabus. Buy a folder for each class (or a binder with tabbed sections) and keep important information organized from day one.
• Double check your financial aid. Stop by the office or call the Financial Aid department to ask if there is any more information or paperwork they need to complete your financial aid package. Checking early will help avoid things like grade freezes and course drops/blocks later on.
• Create a school calendar. Mark all important dates on a planner or calendar. Make note of all exams, papers, projects, etc. Pay special attention to the final week of class and to finals week. This way, you don’t plan anything that conflicts with study time.
• Purchase your textbooks immediately. Of course textbooks are expensive, but so is retaking a class because you fell behind to try to save on textbook costs. Sharing textbooks or waiting for a used book deal might sound like a good idea, but it rarely pays off in the long run.
• Plan to get help for tough courses. Are you scheduled to take a writing course and it’s your weak subject area? Need to take a math course and it’s never come easy to you? Get a tutor and begin working immediately to prepare for your first assignment. Take your class syllabus and textbook to your school’s tutoring center and immediately begin practicing. Build in extra time each week for tutoring. Getting a tutor after you’ve already failed the midterm exam is not the greatest idea.
• Know how to use the library. Take a scheduled tour or information session at the library. Or, as a library to show you how to use the electronic card catalog, etc. Familiarize yourself with the way the library system works at your school so when it comes time to complete a research project, you can jump right in without trying to figure out how things work.