Sometimes most of us get to relax and do not write our own words. Sometimes we end up taking all that is already available on the internet. But when we do this, we end up creating Plagiarism in our content. So here is an exciting question for beginners "what is plagiarism" and how many types of Plagiarism are there? If you have these questions or similar ones, this guide will help you significantly in understanding them. So let's start with Plagiarism first.

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is a noun that is related to content. It comes when we copy someone else's content and use it for ourselves without crediting its rightful owner. Someone else's content can be an idea or words or something similar.

Using someone else's words in the content world is alright, but we need to cite them. If we are not sitting or giving credit to the owner, we are doing it wrong. By doing this way, we will have Plagiarism in our content.

It is a possibility that we will get away sometimes by doing this, or it saves our time. But in different industries, it is entirely acceptable.

In content creation, where we have graphics, images, notes, and similar things, we can not get away with Plagiarism as most bots detect this.

Similarly, for students, writers, teachers, and content creators, we can not get away with committing Plagiarism.

It is essential for students and content writers to know what Plagiarism is and how many types of Plagiarism are there. The understanding of this will not only allow them to get Plagiarism free content but write effective and quality words.

So let's find out what are the main types of Plagiarism.

11 common types of Plagiarism

Plagiarism and its types differ in severity, but it is still unacceptable to schools, colleges, content marketers, and others. For students and teachers, there are online tools like Turnitin, which catches Plagiarism and the sources where you took content.

For marketers, Google knows whether you have copied someone else's content so that they won't let you get on top of their search results. So it is beneficial to learn about types of Plagiarism.

Some of the main plagiarism types are as follows:

1. Self Plagiarism
2. Global Plagiarism
3. Paraphrasing Plagiarism
4. Verbatim Plagiarism
5. Patchwork Plagiarism
6. Auto Plagiarism
7. Complete Plagiarism
8. Incremental Plagiarism
9. Source-based Plagiarism
10. Direct Plagiarism
11. Mosaic Plagiarism

Self Plagiarism

It is main type of Plagiarism, but a lot different from other primary types. In self plagiarism, you are not stealing or copying someone else's data, but you are copying yourself. This is a common plagiarism type for content writers and sometimes students.

Example of Self Plagiarism

With this example, you can learn what is self plagiarism and how it happens. Let's say you are a writer who writes on educational topics. Someone hired you as a freelancer and told you to write an article on "What is the difference between Plagiarism and Paraphrasing."

As you are a professional writer who has been writing on these topics for a while, there is a possibility that you have already written a similar thing in the past. These are the steps that can result in self-plagiarism.

Step 1: You find an article you have previously completed for another client.

Step 2: You copied some sentences from there.

Step 3: You paraphrase those sentences as per your new topic.

Step 4: You submitted your article to your client.

By following these steps, you will create an article containing self plagiarism. Self-plagiarism is a common plagiarism type for content writers and students.

Global Plagiarism

Global Plagiarism belongs to the common types of Plagiarism. Global Plagiarism happens when you take someone else's work entirely and brand it as if you are the owner of it. It is the simplest form of Plagiarism in research publications, assignments, and blog articles.

Example of Global Plagiarism

With this example, you can learn what is global Plagiarism and how it happens. Let's say you are writing a research paper or an article on "What is the Best Paraphrasing Tool for Thesis". These steps will ensure that your content will have global Plagiarism. The steps are:

Step 1: You open a website or research paper with content related to your topic.

Step 2: You download or copy the entire research paper.

Step 3: You changed the author's name to your name.

Step 4: You submitted or published this research paper as you are the one who carried out this research.

If you follow these steps and submit a research paper as your own, it will come as global Plagiarism. This is one of the most critical types of Plagiarism that can bring a lot of trouble for you.

Paraphrasing Plagiarism

Paraphrasing plagiarism is the most common type of Plagiarism. It is because when we write about something, we research it. When we read something related to our topic, we learn from it and write almost the same thing. Sometimes it happens accidentally as the writer doesn't know whether the content will contain Plagiarism. Mostly the writers know that they are paraphrasing, and it results in Plagiarism.

Example of Paraphrasing Plagiarism

This example will help you find what is paraphrasing plagiarism. Let's say you are writing content on a topic, "How to Copy and Paste without Plagiarizing." Below are the steps that can result in paraphrasing plagiarism.

Step 1: You open a website with content related to your topic.

Step 2: There is a sentence such as "If you want to copy content you need to make sure you give a credit before use so that it does not end up as plagiarism."

Step 3: You copy the sentence and paraphrase it as "If you need to copy words, you need to ensure you give citation before use so that it does not contain plagiarism."

Step 4: You publish the content.

By following these four steps, your content will have paraphrasing plagiarism. It is because you read something and try to change a few words with their synonyms. Google for content or Turnitin for assignments and research papers can detect this immediately. Their algorithm allows them to match content with similar passages available on different websites.

Verbatim Plagiarism

Verbatim Plagiarism is also famous as a simple copy and paste Plagiarism. This is the most common type of plagiarism as you go to a website or journal and copy their content. Once you copy the content from a website, you return to the website or file and paste the same copied content. So when you do this, copy and paste and do not give credit to the actual author of the content, you will get verbatim Plagiarism in your content.

Example of Verbatim Plagiarism

This example will help you understand what is verbatim Plagiarism. Let's say you are writing content on the best paraphrasing tool to beat Turnitin and you copy-paste a full paragraph that is available on another website. Here are steps that make you create verbatim Plagiarism.

Step 1: You open a website with content related to your topic.

Step 2: You copy and paste this paragraph from that website. "Paraphrasing is not bad, but you can do it by crediting the source and writing your own words. By doing this, you will avoid Plagiarism and write quality content."

Step 3: You come back to your file or website and paste the copied content here.

Step 4: You published the content and did not add any source or reference to the copied content.

Now, these are the simple 4 steps that can create verbatim Plagiarism in your content.

Patchwork Plagiarism

You can understand this type of Plagiarism by its name "patchwork." Patches are small pieces of different things that make a new more significant piece. When someone copies patches of content from different sources and uses it in their content, it leads to patchwork plagiarism.

Example of Patchwork Plagiarism

This example will help you understand what is patchwork plagiarism. Let's say you are writing content on "Why is Paraphrasing considered Plagiarism". If you follow these steps, you will end up with patchwork plagiarism. These steps are:

Step 1: You opened four websites with content similar to your topic.

Step 2: You copied a sentence from all four websites.

Step 3: You paste all four sentences into your file with little tweaks.

Step 4: You publish your content.

So, these are the four simple steps that result in patchwork plagiarism.

Auto Plagiarism

Auto plagiarism is sometimes referred to as self-plagiarism. It also belongs to the main types of Plagiarism but is a bit different from self-plagiarism.

It mostly happens with junior writers or students who are yet to learn about Plagiarism and things associated with it.

Example of Auto Plagiarism

With this example, you can learn what auto plagiarism is and how it happens. Let's say you are a writer who frequently writes on educational topics.

Someone asked you to write an article on "why is paraphrasing important" As you are a professional writer who has been writing on these topics for a while, there is a possibility that you have already written a similar thing in the past.

These are the steps that can result in auto-plagiarism.

Step 1: You find an article you have previously completed for another client.

Step 2: You copied some sentences from there.

Step 3: You paraphrase those sentences as per your new topic.

Step 4: You submitted your article to your client.

By following these steps, you will create an article containing auto plagiarism. Auto-plagiarism is a common plagiarism type for content writers and students.

Most people combine this with self-plagiarism because it is almost the same. However, there are chances of a mistake in auto plagiarism, and self-plagiarism is usually intentional.

So this thing makes self plagiarism and auto Plagiarism a bit different from each other.

Complete Plagiarism

Complete Plagiarism is another primary type of Plagiarism. Complete Plagiarism happens when you take someone else's work and use it as yours.

It is the simplest form of Plagiarism in research publications, assignments, and blog articles. But this can be the most severe type of Plagiarism as it can bring a lot of trouble to the person committing this.

Example of Complete Plagiarism

With this example, you can learn what is complete Plagiarism and how it happens. Let's say you are writing a research paper or an article on "paraphrase vs rephrase".

If anyone applies these steps, they will be committing complete Plagiarism. The steps are:

Step 1: You open a website with a research paper on the same topic or related.

Step 2: You download the entire research paper.

Step 3: You change the author's name and edit your name here.

Step 4: You submitted or published this research paper as you are the one who carried out this research.

If you follow these steps and submit a research paper as your own, it will come as complete Plagiarism.

This is one of the most critical and severe types of Plagiarism that can bring a lot of trouble for the person committing it.

Incremental Plagiarism

It is another popular type of Plagiarism that is mainly associated with content writers and bloggers. Google wants experts to write on a specific topic as they suggest in their Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.

For example, a doctor can advise what medicines you should eat if you are feeling ill. An average person or a writer cannot write on these topics because they don't have the medical background of a doctor.

Incremental Plagiarism comes when you cannot answer a query 100%. A writer with insufficient knowledge and background of that information can not fulfil the requirements of that topic.

So, they end up using other things on the internet and adding their own observations.

Example of Incremental Plagiarism

This example will help you understand incremental Plagiarism and how to avoid this as a writer. Imagine you are a writer and have education and expertise in computer sciences.

You are given the topic "how much paraphrasing is too much" to write an article. As your educational background and enterprise are in computer science, it is expected that you cannot effectively write on this academic topic.

Here are some steps that cause you incremental Plagiarism.

Step 1: You open a website or two that has an article or content related to your topic.

Step 2: You try understanding what is written in these articles.

Step 3: You use passages of existing content and start editing and adding your knowledge to it.

Step 4: You complete your work and submit it to the client or publish it on a website.

By following these steps you will commit incremental Plagiarism. By doing this, you will write an article, not of the quality your client was looking for.

The main reason is that your informational background doesn't support you to write on these things.

An academic writer or researcher will write exceptionally well on this topic because of their knowledge background, and they'll provide proof and evidence within their content.

Source-based Plagiarism

This type of plagiarism is common for students as they are the ones who mostly face this. Source based plagiarism happens when a student cites a misleading source while writing. Or in simple words, if a student gives a citation to false or discarded information, it will cause source based plagiarism.

Example of Source based Plagiarism

This is a simple example that will help you find what is source based plagiarism. Let's say you are writing a research paper on "bushfire in Australia". But you only read papers about bushfires in America.

Another reason for it can be you are writing the research paper and citing correctly but changed the author to another person. From James to John etc.

So here are some steps that will lead you to source based plagiarism.

Step 1: You opened an article or research paper that is somewhat related to your topic.

Step 2: You read the irrelevant information.

Step 3: You used it as a reference in your research paper.

Step 4: Complete your research paper and submit it for publication.

Since the topic is not directly related, you will have source-based plagiarism. Just like you were writing on "bushfire in Australia" and citing the reference of bushfire in America. The reasons and causes of bushfires in America differ from in Australia, so this is irrelevant.

So these are the main ways that lead to source based plagiarism when you cite irrelevant or incorrect things.

Direct Plagiarism

It is one of the main types of plagiarism and is closely related to complete plagiarism. Direct plagiarism is usually associated with students and often with beginner content writers.

Direct plagiarism happens when a student uses a word by word content of others or slightly changes without citing the source. It usually happens when they copy-paste a sentence or paragraph but do not add quotations or references to it.

Example of Direct Plagiarism

This example helps you understand what is direct plagiarism. Let's assume you are writing an "Agile Methodologies for Software Development" assignment. You are supposed to write your observations while writing. It is obvious to go on different websites and learn from there, but you avoid direct plagiarism by citing them properly. So here are some steps that create direct plagiarism.

Step 1: You open a website that has an article on "Agile Methodologies for Software Development".

Step 2: You found this useful and helpful and copy and paste in your assignment.

Step 3: You did not add a reference or quotation to the source from where you got this content.

Step 4: Complete the assignment and submit it on your university portal.

Just because you did not follow the procedure or way of using other sites' content will cause you to commit direct plagiarism. If you properly quote, paraphrase, summarize, and use citation, you will not face this issue.

Mosaic Plagiarism

Mosaic plagiarism belongs to main types of plagiarism and usually it is related with students. This plagiarism type mostly occurs when a student copies a phrase from a source and use it without adding quotation marks.

Another common reason for this type of plagirism is when a student changes a particular synonym and uses it without changing anything else. However, many believe this plagirism type is completely intentional so do I.

Example of Mosaic Plagiarism

This mosaic plagirism example will help you find "what is mosaic plagiarism". Let's suppose you are a student who is writing an assignment on topic "Benefits of Paraphrasing".

As per rules you need to write your own thoughts after doing a proper research. Here are common steps that cause mosaic plagiarism.

Step 1: You open a website or journal that has related or relevant information to your topic.

Step 2: You copy a phrase, sentence or paragraph from that existing published content.

Step 3: You copied that into your own content and did not added quotation marks that suggest source of it.

Step 4: You proceeded and submitted that assignment.

These are the main steps that cause mosaic plagiarism in your assignment. For content integratity, it is not a good thing to have this plagirism.

Wrapping Up

Plagiarism is a fact and reality having different reasons. There are many types of plagirism in which it occur.

In this guide, I tried to list major plagiarism types with examples. So, here are some ending points of this guide:

1. Plagirism occur due to several reasons.
2. Sometimes the reasons of plagirism can be intentional and sometimes unintentional.
3. Students and content writers mostly faces plagirism issues.
4. School, Colleges or Universities do not encourage plagiarism and only allow 10~15% relaxation.
5. Plagiarism types are extremely dangerous for content writers and creators as plagiarised content mostly not performs well on Search Engines.
6. There are always some common steps that cause any particular type of plagirism.

So, these are some ending notes from this guide. I hope you liked this article and it help you find more about plagiarism and its types.

Meanwhile, our free plagiarism checker no word limit can help you find any type of plagiarism mentioned above. Cheers!