Using other’s ideas or content in their writing without giving any credits to the original author is said as plagiarism. However using common knowledge in the paper cannot be treated as plagiarism. Although plagiarism is not a crime, serious actions are taken against the people who plagiarize. If it is proved that student has plagiarized ,universities/schools may not accept the work on the paper anymore and this will make the student difficult to complete their course.So it is utmost important for everyone to check if their writing is plagiarized or not.Below are the few practices that can be followed to prevent plagiarism

Do not copy : Copying other’s ideas or content without citing them can be considered as plagiarism. This happens more often now a days because of the use of internet. As as when we refer to the internet for information, we tend to use same ideas in our writing.Make sure that all the sources from where the idea has been taken are cited in the writings.Sometimes students extend the writings of existing research papers .This cannot be considered as plagiarism if they include the author and work of the prior research.
Planning :Proper planning and documentation are considered as most important way approaches for successful writing .This also helps to prevent plagiarism. Set a realistic deadline for completion of the writing such that all the tasks can fit in the schedule.Planning includes tasks like selecting a topic, collecting the information required, keeping track of all the sources from where the information has been collected and predicting the challenges that could occur during the process of writing. One should plan in such a way that there is enough time to have good number of revisions. Unorganized and unplanned will put one under stress and might lead to plagiarism.
Cite the paraphrase content : Writing the content of the original source in one's own words can be said as paraphrasing.Paraphrasing in a writing cannot be considered as plagiarism. However make sure that respective paraphrase content is cited .Also one needs to be sure that the original content and paraphrase content mean the same.For this to happen one should properly understand the content in the original source and then rephrase it accordingly. Do not use the content if one could not understand it.It is suggested not to use the words from sources where the information has been taken.
Importance of citation: Citation is a way by which one can show that their writing has used some kind of resources .This way one can show that their writing is not plagiarized. It is not wrong to use someone's idea or content as long as we provide appropriate citations . It is recommended to keep track of all the sources from which the content has been taken . This kind of practice makes a person to reconstruct the writing that has been done before.Citation also provides more information to the person reading.It doesn’t mean that using citations in the paper will mean that the paper is not valuable .Infact with the information from citation one can be directed to the original source and they can get more detailed information about the research. Using appropriate citation will avoid us from plagiarism.
Use of plagiarism detection tools. There are good number of tools available online by which one can determine if their writing is plagiarized or not.Most of the schools and universities also use these tools to detect plagiarism. There may be cases where plagiarism can occur accidentally. One of the best ways to avoid plagiarism is using these tools before the final submission of the writing.