Academic Study Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Academic Study Skills - Essay Example Most academic work involves building on work that has been done by others. The provision of new insights about the specific area of research contributes to the building on what others in the field have done. To build on someone’s work might involve having to use their ideas to come up with your line of argument to support your new idea. It is in this instant of using someone’s ideas to come up with your point of view that it is important to use references. The use of references ensures that people who have contributed work to a particular field get good credit for their work. Besides, one learns to foster intellectual honesty by giving others credit for their work hence avoiding the vice of plagiarism.What is plagiarism and how can you avoid it?Plagiarism refers to the practice of stealing another person’s ideas or writings and passing them off as your own (Clabaugh & Rozycki, 2001, p. vii). Plagiarism is a fraudulent practice as it involves stealing someone's wo rk and then lying about it. Based on the severe nature of plagiarism, it is necessary to avoid it at all costs.One of the ways to avoid plagiarism is to learn the art of crediting the sources one uses. Whenever one uses phrases, data and other information that they did not come up with themselves, then one should give his sources the credit. To get better at crediting sources, one should analyze their sources critically to know exactly which author did what (Clabaugh & Rozycki, 2001, p. 56).