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How to avoid plagiarism?

Proper citation style.

Avoid plagiarism by always listing the source and formatting it correctly when you are note-taking. Take care of the proper formatting and citation style when using content from outside sources.

Write on your own

Avoid borrowing and overusing large pieces of the content from outside sources, especially from Wikipedia. Write your own thoughts and use sources only to support your opinion (remember to cite it though!).

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Plagiarism Checker Review

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Online Plagiarism Checker For Students

Writing an academic paper can be challenging when you’re not sure if it’s original enough to pass a plagiarism check. Of course, students take information from various sites before writing their own text. Sometimes, it just so happens that certain parts are very similar to your resources, making your professor think that you’ve just copied work from somewhere. That’s why it’s crucial for any modern college or university student to ensure that their work has 100% original content to maintain academic integrity.

Luckily, a free plagiarism checker online can solve this issue quickly and easily. Many cheap essay writing services use a plagiarism checker for research paper. However, students sometimes forget that they should too. But with so many options that pop up when you ask Google to “check my paper for plagiarism”, how do you choose the right one for detection? We’ve got the solution in the form of PapersOwl’s free plagiarism checker tool! Our simple tool makes it convenient to check any writing task without having to spend a dime. It works quickly and highly accurately, ensuring that you get the top grade you deserve. So, if you want to check plagiarism online before turning your task in, head over to our website and get started!

Accurate Check for Plagiarism with Percentage

Many students wishing to produce original content aren’t quite sure how to get an exact percentage of plagiarised text in their work. This percentage is important since many universities have a certain limit of non-unique words you can have in your essay for it to be considered okay. If your plagiarism search doesn’t give you the exact percentage, you can’t be sure if your assignment will go through or not.

When using a free plagiarism tool, it’s essential to have this data provided to you. Only when you have it can you decide which parts to change and which ones to chuck out to achieve your desired results. Plagiarized content is a big issue in modern educational institutions, so getting reliable and trustworthy results is vital. This is the most essential requirement when you check plagiarism.

PapersOwl’s plagiarism detection tool gives you all the information you need to fix plagiarized content. Whether you’ve fallen victim to accidental plagiarism or have tried to make your life easier by copying some text from different sources, you’ll get an accurate percentage with our plagiarism checker online. If you’re wondering how to check paper for plagiarism, it’s nothing complicated at all! Simply visit our site, paste your whole essay into the relevant text box or upload the text file, click on Check For Plagiarism, and you’ll get accurate plagiarism results in a matter of seconds. You’ll see the problematic parts with plagiarism detected highlighted, with links to where similar content exists. Our service with plagiarism detector will also give you the option to check my essay for plagiarism and then to hire a professional paper writer to fix your task quickly if you're busy with other things!

The Fastest Plagiarism Checker Online

Gaining insight into duplicate content only works if you get your results quickly. There are so many free plagiarism software online that promise to do the job for you. However, a lot of them are clunky, slow, and inaccurate. How can you produce original work without similarity detection you can trust?

PapersOwl stands out in this regard because it will detect plagiarism in seconds. This is a plagiarism scanner that’s able to perform a Swift Check to give you a uniqueness check right there and then. It also conducts a Deep Search, going through millions of sources on the internet to check for plagiarism. A document of about 1500 words takes only about 10 seconds to get processed! You get a clear plagiarism score of how much text is plagiarized and how much is original. All the sources that your essay matches are listed based on how much similarity there is in your academic writing. And on top of that, you get a handy Make It Unique button that’ll take you to an order page where you can ask our expert writers to rewrite your work and make it 100% unique.

All of this is done almost instantly, allowing students to continue do assignments without missing a beat. Not every plagiarism detection software works this quickly, making ours the best one you’ll ever use.

Plagiarism Checker Helps Boost Your Grade

A lot of students make the mistake of considering their papers automatically free from plagiarism. After all, they’ve written it themselves, so how could it be problematic? What they don’t realize is that it’s very easy to borrow some information mistakenly. Turning such a paper in can cause multiple problems, as your professor might think you haven’t done the work at all.

That is why you should always use a plagiarism scanner to test for plagiarized content in your college papers. Our online plagiarism checker for students is designed for this exact purpose. A simple, free plagiarism check could help you check plagiarism, fix any mistakes you see, and submit high-quality text that no one will question.

Our plagiarism detector has a lot going for it. It makes plagiarism detection easier than ever before. Unlike copying and pasting each passage individually into Google, simply upload the whole file into our plagiarism checker free for students, and you don’t have to do anything else. All the matches are highlighted so you know what to change.

The plagiarism test will give you a uniqueness percentage too. This will help you figure out where you stand and how much time you need to adjust anything if required. So, using our copyright checker online free to check your writing is essential. This way, you’ll submit the task only when you’re sure it meets the level of uniqueness required by your school. As a result, your grades will drastically improve when you check for plagiarism.

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How Does Plagiarism Checker Work?

• If you already have a completed text, all you need is just to copy-paste the whole thing in the special box of the chosen plagiarism tool or website, choose suitable settings (if any), then press “check for plagiarism”. It is quite simple and takes just a few moments.
• Once you have pressed “check for plagiarism”, the system will analyze your text and compare it with different sources to find similarities. As a rule, the duration depends on the text’s length. A standard free online plagiarism checker with percentage can give you the result within five minutes or less.
• When the system finishes the work you will be transmitted to the reporting page – it contains the comprehensive report on your work, a percentage of its uniqueness, and a list of sources on which similarities were detected. Often, such tools also highlight the overlaps that were found.

As you can see, it is simple. However, for the best and reliable result you have to be careful. There are tons of programs and online tools that can be used but keep in mind that many of them work differently and not all are good for you. To be confident in the truthfulness of the received result, you need to select the best plagiarism checker because only a professional and high-quality software can detect all similarities and give you a reasoned assessment.

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Advantages Of Plagiarism Checker By PapersOwl

Why choose us? Our service offers a professional online plagiarism checker with report that will provide you with a comprehensive report to make you confident in the 100% uniqueness of your paper. Our free plagiarism checker for students guarantees the best check and here are the key advantages of using our tool that prove this:

You don’t need to pay anything to check your paper for plagiarism because we know the value of original and unique works.

One of the main benefits of our antiplagiat checker online is that it works so fast that you will not even have enough time to make yourself a cup of coffee while it analyzes your text, and it is safe!

We use the latest and the best algorithms and software in order to provide you with an advanced check and help you receive the high-quality papers.

It is simple in use and won’t take much time!

Many students have already confirmed that our free tool is a great and convenient feature that helped them detect and fix errors that could lead to a failure. With us, you will no longer need to look for a different scanner!

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Plagiarism Checker FAQ

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Check Your Paper for Grammar and Unintentional Plagiarism

Welcome to your go-to review service for writing and citing with confidence! With the click of a button, BibMe Plus will review your paper for spelling, punctuation, verb tense, and other grammar issues so you can rest easy knowing that you’re submitting your best work.

After putting in the long hours to complete and submit an assignment on time, the last thing you want to learn is that a misspelled word or missing APA format or MLA format citation slipped past you and made its way into your final draft. Thankfully, your concerns about how to avoid plagiarism and typos can be a thing of the past with help from the right tools.

The BibMe Plus writing and citing tools go far beyond the basics of just proofreading; they also check your paper for plagiarism and help you build your biography quickly. Our tool scans your document for similar content on the Internet. If it encounters a passage that may need a citation, it flags it so you can review the passage, examine the source, and easily create and insert a citation if it’s needed. Try it out now!

Detect Unintentional Plagiarism

Finding out that you’ve accidentally infringed on another’s work the night before your assignment is due can leave you scrambling to rewrite sections of your paper, update your citations, and modify your bibliography at the eleventh hour.

If you find that you have accidentally plagiarized, whether on your first, fourth, or final draft, the BibMe Plus plagiarism tool has got you covered. When the BibMe Plus essay checker scans your paper, it searches the web for passages of similar text and highlights areas that may need attention. You have the power to review each flagged passage, as well as the suggested source, to determine if a citation is needed. If you conclude that you did not plagiarize, you can dismiss the plagiarism suggestion and move on to review the next.

After reviewing the suggested sources and identifying the passages which are missing citations, you can choose to start creating a proper citation right then and there. Not only can you create the citation, but you can both add it directly into your paper as an in-text citation as well as to your bibliography at the end of the paper.

All of the BibMe Plus writing and plagiarism check tools and guides are conveniently available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So it doesn’t matter if you finish your paper a week early, or a few hours before it is due; help is here whenever you need it.

How Does the Plagiarism Checker Work?

Before subscription-based and free plagiarism checkers became readily available, figuring out how to check for plagiarism efficiently and effectively was a vexing problem. After all, reviewing every sentence by hand and comparing it all with the entirety of the world’s published works for potential plagiarism would be an arduous and potentially impossible task. That’s why instructors across all levels of education often rely on automated scanning tools (like a paid or free online plagiarism checker)  to check for plagiarism and help them identify instances of academic dishonesty; and why students should, too.

A free plagiarism checker may scan your paper for matching text and merely highlight the problem areas and return a percentage that reflects the amount of unoriginal writing it uncovered. The BibMe Plus paper checker offers a lot more than a free plagiarism site and gives you the information you need to make fully informed and intelligent decisions. Our plagiarism detector reveals any passages that require your review and returns the results to you, along with links to the source that contains matching text.

About the Plagiarism Checker and Grammar Check Tools

You’ve done the research, drafted and revised your paper, and took care to credit all of your sources. The last step before you submit your paper is to proofread it in order to catch any missed errors or citations. A missing preposition , misused adverb , or misspelled interjection might escape you, but you’re unlikely to escape your teacher.

The BibMe Plus grammar checker gives you the feedback you need to help polish and improve your paper before you turn it in, not after. Not only does it flag spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, but it also gives you helpful tips that explain why the item is flagged so you can correct it, learn from it, and become a better writer.

A quick scan of your paper with the BibMe Plus plagiarism tool will also help to reveal any passages that, while perhaps unintentional, would still be considered plagiarizing. With tailored tips and an easy-to-use interface, our writing tool can help you unlock the magic to more natural, relaxed, and efficient editing to help ensure that your writing is clear, consistent, and properly cited.

The best part about it? Instant suggestions. No further reading , waiting for a human proofreader to respond to you, or racing across campus to get to the writing center before it closes.

The BibMe Plus grammar checker is available precisely when and where you need it. Conduct an on-demand spell check and grammar check at any time of day to validate the integrity of your work, and to generate any missing citations, all in a matter of seconds.

What is Plagiarism?

Committing academic dishonesty could lead to failing grades and even expulsion Knowing the potential consequences of plagiarism certainly makes it clear why you should avoid it. However, without a concrete definition, abstaining from it can prove challenging.

If you’re wondering, “What does plagiarism mean?” an easy to remember plagiarism definition is that it’s the act of using someone else’s work or ideas without giving them proper credit . It’s important to note that this definition is not bound by intention, and students may commit it both knowingly and unknowingly in a research paper .

Learning to define plagiarism is just the first step in developing the awareness necessary to avoid it. Identifying it in its various forms is the crucial next step, combined with consistently utilizing a subscription-based or free online plagiarism checker as a non-negotiable element of your paper-writing process.

Is your paper in need of a plagiarism check?  The BibMe Plus grammar check and plagiarism tool has got you covered! It’s designed to help spot those pesky places in your paper that may get red marks from your teacher, and it couldn’t be easier to use. Simply upload or paste your paper into the online plagiarism checker and, in no time at all, you’ll receive your results and can review any areas of concern. Try it now!

Not ready to check for plagiarism yet? Not to worry–the BibMe Plus plagiarism tool is available 24/7, so you can research, write, and revise when it’s best for your schedule.

Examples of Plagiarism

While it’s critical to understand the plagiarism definition as it’s broadly defined, it’s just as vital to learn the various ways it can occur if proactively preventing plagiarism is your goal.

Direct Plagiar ism:

Direct plagiarism is the deliberate act of copying another individual’s work or idea into an assignment without providing any type of acknowledgment. An example of this would be a student copying and pasting text from a source into their project, without using quotation marks or any kind of attribution.

Incremental Plagiarism : 

Copying bits and pieces from a single sentence and adding them into a project without attribution is a form of literary theft called incremental plagiarism . Just as with direct plagiarism, the incremental form attempts to disguise when a student or writer is taking credit for words and ideas that are not their own.

Patchwriting:

When a writer rephrases another author’s words (and it remains similar to the original words) and includes them without attribution in their work, it is known as patchwriting or mosaic writing .

How does it happen? Perhaps the writer rearranged words in the sentence, subbed out a few adjectives with synonyms, or used bits and pieces of the original wording and mixed it with their own. No matter the method, the original wording is often easy to spot as it peeks through its patchwork disguise.

Self-Plagiarism:

Plagiarizing another author’s words or ideas is an issue that most students recognize as wrong, but many are shocked to learn that reusing their own words can also fit the plagiarism definition. After all, they ask, how can I steal from myself?

Self-plagiarism is less about stealing and more about deceiving. When a student refurbishes or reuses work they completed in the past and turns it in a second time instead of completing new, original work, they are not honest with their teacher. Even reusing portions or paragraphs of your previous work without disclosing it is dishonest.

Do you have a paper you want to evaluate so you can confirm you’ve completed your research responsibly without plagiarizing (by accident)? A quick scan with the BibMe Plus plagiarism tool will help highlight phrases, sentences, or paragraphs in your paper that are found elsewhere on the internet. Each highlighted section has a prompt that will also ask you if you need a reference for it. Even better? If you review the source and determine that you need to add a citation, the plagiarism check tool will guide you through the steps of creating and inserting your reference. Pretty awesome, right? We think so too.

Lesser-Known Examples of Plagiarism

There are quite a few acts of intentional or unintentional dishonesty that students are surprised to learn also meet the definition of plagiarism.

Misleading Citations:

Including misleading citations is a form of academic dishonesty that is just as serious as direct infringement.

To understand how this fits into the plagiarize definition, consider the final result. If this type of plagiarism is undetected, the writer has deceived their audience and created a false belief about the words and ideas in the source material and its author. Whether it occurs intentionally or unintentionally, misleading citations draw a false link between an idea and a source and harm a student’s credibility.

Invented Sources:

While misleading references can occur as a result of not understanding your research, invented sources are more often the result of insufficient research or intentional deception. A student who can’t find a source to back up a point they want to make or who doesn’t want to commit the necessary time to ethically complete a paper might resort to including one or more invented sources in their bibliography. Whatever the cause, an invented source creates an illusion of credibility by tying an idea to a source that doesn’t exist.

An invented source can also be the result of poor note-taking. Perhaps you found the perfect quote to include in your introduction but forgot to write down the source. You know it’s wrong to plagiarize, but unless you invent a source you’ll have to remove the quote, right?

Wrong! Rather than choosing between removing the quote or inventing a reference, let the BibMe Plus plagiarism tool free up some time by helping you find the source and create an accurate citation. It’s quick and easy to scan your paper for plagiarism and, most importantly, it’s the ethical thing to do.

What Is Not Plagiarism

With the definition of plagiarism covering so much ground, it’s easy to raise the alarms and wonder if even the most innocent of acts might be construed as plagiarizing. Our advice? Don’t panic. Instead, sit back, relax, and check out these times when you can write your heart out, worry-free:

Common Knowledge:

Information that is widely known and accepted as fact is considered common knowledge. This can either be information that is known to most people in the world, in your country, in your state, or even just in your field of study, depending on the audience for your work. For example:

J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series.

This is a fact that is known widely enough that it is considered common knowledge and does not require a citation.

If your statement is considered common knowledge, you can include it in your paper without creating a citation. Keep in mind, though, that research papers showcase new ideas and analysis. Common knowledge is acceptable to include, but make sure you mix in information from outside sources as well.

Attributed Quote or Idea:

To include the ideas of others in your papers, you need only to attribute them to the original author to ensure you safely stay on the side of academic integrity. A proper paraphrase or direct quote with a citation is an excellent way to promote a point in your paper, while also demonstrating that you fully understand the author’s idea and have completed your research responsibly.

While most writers remember to add references for direct quotes, they can sometimes forget to include references when adding paraphrases into papers. A free plagiarism site may only help these writers pinpoint passages, but the BibMe Plus tool also helps you develop accurate references, in Chicago citation style and many others, in all types of situations. Quotes, paraphrases, full references: you name it, our plagiarism checker does it, and does it well.

Now that we’ve learned what is and isn’t plagiarism, let’s look at how to avoid it entirely.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

When you first learn to define plagiarism and realize how expansive the definition is, it can be intimidating to think about all the information you have to cite. That’s where the BibMe Plus online plagiarism tool comes in by helping to spot intentional and accidental plagiarism and flagging any matching text for your review.

When you use the plagiarism tool, or any of our resources, your paper always stays in your control. You’ll be given the potential source for each flagged passage so you can review it and decide whether to create a citation or dismiss the alert.

If you find that you need to add a citation, we’ve got your back. There are BibMe citing tools that can help guide you through the process of creating and styling a citation for your paper.

No matter what tools you use to help complete your work ethically, whether they’re free plagiarism tools or not, you are ultimately responsible for the work that you turn in. Remember, the best time to find errors or unintentional infringement is BEFORE you turn in your paper, not after. When in doubt, run a BibMe Plus plagiarism check to help you find any passages that you may have missed on your own, and use the free tools to create and insert your citations in more styles than even imaginable.

Spot Writing Mistakes

Unintentionally plagiarizing isn’t the only thing to worry about when writing and revising a paper—you also don’t want to lose points for small grammatical mistakes. Luckily, the BibMe Plus grammar checker and plagiarism tool will complete a spell check and review your document for style, punctuation, sentence structure, verb tense, pronoun -antecedent agreement, and more!

The BibMe Plus grammar check tool gives you more depth and insight than a standard spell checker. When you scan your paper, the proofreader highlights areas for your review and provides prompts to help you make an educated decision about how to proceed before accepting or ignoring each suggestion. And, since our grammar and spelling check gives definitions and explanations, it can help you improve your writing over time.

This service is for all writers, from those who have complete confidence in their writing ability to those who are just starting to write. No matter what your writing level, let the BibMe Plus grammar and plagiarism checker free up your time with a quick and thorough review that leaves no noun , determiner , or conjunction unchecked! Upload your paper now and start improving your writing today.

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Check for unintentional plagiarism

Easily check your paper for missing citations and accidental plagiarism with the EasyBib plagiarism checker. The EasyBib plagiarism checker:

• Scans your paper against billions of sources.
• Identifies text that may be flagged for plagiarism.
• Provides you with a plagiarism score.

You can submit your paper at any hour of the day and quickly receive a plagiarism report.

What is the EasyBib plagiarism checker? 

Most basic plagiarism checkers review your work and calculate a percentage, meaning how much of your writing is indicative of original work. But, the EasyBib plagiarism checker goes way beyond a simple percentage. Any text that could be categorized as potential plagiarism is highlighted, allowing you time to review each warning and determine how to adjust it or how to cite it correctly.

You’ll even see the sources against which your writing is compared and the actual word for word breakdown. If you determine that a warning is unnecessary, you can waive the plagiarism check suggestion.

Plagiarism is unethical because it doesn’t credit those who created the original work; it violates intellectual property and serves to benefit the perpetrator. It is a severe enough academic offense, that many faculty members use their own plagiarism checking tool for their students’ work. With the EasyBib Plagiarism checker, you can stay one step ahead of your professors and catch citation mistakes and accidental plagiarism before you submit your work for grading.

Why use a plagiarism checker? 

Imagine – it’s finals week and the final research paper of the semester is due in two days. You, being quite familiar with this high-stakes situation, hit the books, and pull together a ten-page, last-minute masterpiece using articles and materials from dozens of different sources.

However, in those late, coffee-fueled hours, are you fully confident that you correctly cited all the different sources you used? Are you sure you didn’t accidentally forget any? Are you confident that your teacher’s plagiarism tool will give your paper a 0% plagiarism score?

That’s where the EasyBib plagiarism checker comes in to save the day. One quick check can help you address all the above questions and put your mind at ease.

What exactly is plagiarism? 

Plagiarism has a number of possible definitions; it involves more than just copying someone else’s work. Improper citing, patchworking, and paraphrasing could all lead to plagiarism in one of your college assignments. Below are some common examples of accidental plagiarism that commonly occur.

Quoting or paraphrasing without citations

Not including in-text citations is another common type of accidental plagiarism. Quoting is taking verbatim text from a source. Paraphrasing is when you’re using another source to take the same idea but put it in your own words. In both cases, it’s important to always cite where those ideas are coming from. The EasyBib plagiarism checker can help alert you to when you need to accurately cite the sources you used.

Patchwork plagiarism

When writing a paper, you’re often sifting through multiple sources and tabs from different search engines. It’s easy to accidentally string together pieces of sentences and phrases into your own paragraphs. You may change a few words here and there, but it’s similar to the original text. Even though it’s accidental, it is still considered plagiarism. It’s important to clearly state when you’re using someone else’s words and work.

Improper citations

Depending on the class, professor, subject, or teacher, there are multiple correct citation styles and preferences. Some examples of common style guides that are followed for citations include MLA, APA, and Chicago style. When citing resources, it’s important to cite them accurately. Incorrect citations could make it impossible for a reader to track down a source and it’s considered plagiarism. There are EasyBib citation tools to help you do this.

Don’t fall victim to plagiarism pitfalls. Most of the time, you don’t even mean to commit plagiarism; rather, you’ve read so many sources from different search engines that it gets difficult to determine an original thought or well-stated fact versus someone else’s work. Or worse, you assume a statement is common knowledge, when in fact, it should be attributed to another author.

When in doubt, cite your source!

Time for a quick plagiarism quiz! 

Which of the following requires a citation?

• A chart or graph from another source
• A paraphrase of an original source
• Several sources’ ideas summarized into your own paragraph
• A direct quote
• All of the above

If you guessed option E than you’d be correct. Correct punctuation and citation of another individual’s ideas, quotes, and graphics are a pillar of good academic writing.

What if you copy your own previous writing?

Resubmitting your own original work for another class’s assignment is a form of self-plagiarism, so don’t cut corners in your writing. Draft an original piece for each class or ask your professor if you can incorporate your previous research.

What features are available with the EasyBib plagiarism checker? 

Along with providing warnings and sources for possible plagiarism, the EasyBib  plagiarism checker works alongside the other EasyBib tools, including a grammar checker  and a spell checker . You’ll receive personalized feedback on your thesis and writing structure too!

The  plagiarism checker compares your writing sample with billions of available sources online so that it detects plagiarism at every level. You’ll be notified of which phrases are too similar to current research and literature, prompting a possible rewrite or additional citation. You’ll also get feedback on your paper’s inconsistencies, such as changes in text, formatting, or style. These small details could suggest possible plagiarism within your assignment.

And speaking of citations, there are also  EasyBib citation tools  available. They help you quickly build your bibliography and avoid accidental plagiarism. Make sure you know which citation format your professor prefers!

Great! How do I start? 

Simply copy and paste or upload your essay into the checker at the top of this page. You’ll receive the first five grammar suggestions for free! To try the plagiarism checker for free, start your EasyBib Plus three-day free trial.* If you love the product and decide to opt for premium services, you’ll have access to unlimited writing suggestions and personalized feedback.

The EasyBib plagiarism checker is conveniently available 24 hours a day and seven days a week. You can cancel anytime.  Check your paper for free today!.

*See Terms and Conditions

Visit www.easybib.com for more information on helpful EasyBib writing and citing tools.

For informational guides and on writing and citing, visit the EasyBib guides homepage .

Plagiarism Checker by Quetext

Free plagiarism checker: how it works, enter text into plagiarism detection tool.

We make it simple. Just copy and paste all content from your document into our plagiarism checker and hit the ‘Check Plagiarism’ button to get started.

Evaluate text for plagiarism

Our plagiarism detection tool uses DeepSearch™ Technology to identify any content throughout your document that might be plagiarized. We identify plagiarized content by running the text through three steps:

• 1.) Contextual Analysis
• 2.) Fuzzy Matching
• 3.) Conditional Scoring

Accurate plagiarism results

After evaluating the text against billions of internet sources, you will be provided with a plagiarism score showing the percentage of text that is an exact or near-match to existing text online.

Resolve plagiarism risk and use citations

Our ColorGrade™ feedback feature highlights exact matches vs. near-exact or “fuzzy” matches with corresponding colors. From there, you can resolve plagiarism issues by deleting or altering the at-risk copy. Or, you can use our handy “Cite Source” feature to generate citations in MLA, APA, and Chicago formats and insert the citations directly into your document.

Plagiarism Checker Benefits

Whether producing original content or verifying that of others, there’s a lot to gain from using a plagiarism checker. Accurate, automatic detection of duplicate content facilitates the copy-checking process for teachers, students, content writers, and more. Results showing the exact percentage of plagiarized content allows users to see exactly how much text has been copied and where they need to re-word.

For Teachers

Before homework can be graded for quality, it must first be confirmed as original. Our easy-to-use tool arms teachers with a simple, effective way to verify and grade students’ work. Educators at all levels can benefit from ensuring academic integrity through a comprehensive plagiarism check. From K-12, all the way through higher education, teachers are faced with the task of verifying the originality of the work of dozens, if not hundreds, of students each year. Automating this process frees teachers up to focus on the quality of work, rather than be bogged down by its originality.

For Students

While the prevalence of academic plagiarism is on the rise, much of it is arguably unintentional. A simple, yet accurate and comprehensive, plagiarism checker offers students peace of mind when submitting written content for grading. It is much easier to do a quick check for potential plagiarism before submission rather than convince a teacher after the fact that your academic integrity is not in question. And Quetext even takes checking for plagiarism a step further, helping students identify and cite the source itself with our built-in citation generator.

For Copywriters

Plagiarism risk is not restricted to academia. Anyone tasked with writing for an individual or business has an ethical and legal responsibility to produce original content. On top of that, content writers are often tasked with producing content on topics outside of their wheelhouse, leaving them reliant on the work of others for their research. Our plagiarism checker gives content writers a quick and easy method to prevent copyright infringement. Checking even lengthy pieces of writing takes only a few minutes, keeping companies’ public content in check and writers’ integrity intact.

Types of Plagiarism

It’s important to understand that plagiarism expands far beyond just copying someone else’s work word-for-word. There are several different types of plagiarism that should be avoided.

Self-Plagiarism

Many believe that, as long as they produced the work at some point in the past, they can include it in future pieces. However, even if you were the original author, that original work must be cited in order to not be flagged as plagiarism. Treat your past self as a totally separate author; be sure to include all relevant citations and quotations, the same as you would for any other source.

Patchwork Plagiarism

Patchwork plagiarism is the act of piecing together a "patchwork" of existing content to form something new. Assembling unoriginal content in this manner often involves some paraphrasing, with only slight changes. This type of plagiarism can be tricky and can certainly occur unintentionally, especially in academia. Since academic writing is largely based on the research of others, a well-meaning student can inadvertently end up plagiarizing.

Mosaic Plagiarism

Mosaic plagiarism is synonymous with patchwork plagiarism. It describes the process of loosely rearranging or restating another's work without issuing proper credit. It can occur accidentally or intentionally. For authors, mosaic plagiarism endangers their academic integrity or reputation as a writer. For those checking content originality, such as teachers, mosaic plagiarism can easily appear to be original content, which can make mosaic plagiarism especially difficult to detect manually.

Accidental Plagiarism

Plagiarism doesn’t have to be intentional to still be considered plagiarism — even in early academia, where students are just learning how to properly cite others’ work. While there may be no ill intent from the student, most schools have policies explicitly treating accidental plagiarism the same as intentional plagiarism. Students are expected to know how to properly issue credit to other authors. Similarly, content writers risk damage to their reputation if they produce plagiarized content, regardless of intent.

Plagiarism Checker FAQ

What is plagiarism.

Plagiarism is representing someone else’s work as your own. In educational contexts, there are differing definitions of plagiarism depending on the institution. Plagiarism is considered a violation of academic integrity and a breach of journalistic ethics.

What percentage of a paper can be plagiarized (or copied) and still be considered unique?

Generally speaking, similar or exact copies of another source should be kept under 15% for the total text of the article/paper/essay. As a best practice, citations should be used whenever using another source word-for-word.

What’s the difference between deliberate and accidental plagiarism?

Deliberate plagiarism is purposely copying works from books, articles, webpages, or someone else’s paper and representing it as your original work. Alternatively, accidental plagiarism occurs in a few different ways:

• Incorrectly citing another person’s works
• Failing to paraphrase another person’s works - even when citing it correctly
• Reusing your own previous papers and inadvertently representing it as a new idea

What are the consequences of plagiarism?

The consequences for plagiarizing another person’s works vary. But broadly speaking, the types of consequences can be grouped by person and profession.

Plagiarism consequences for students

Maintaining academic integrity is a top priority for every educational institution. As already mentioned, ignorance of how to properly cite sources is not an excuse for plagiarism. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure they are submitting work that has not been plagiarized.

Failure to do so can result in disciplinary action, including an automatic failed grade, removal from a class, or expulsion from a school or university. Students who are allowed to continue at their institution following an act of plagiarism may encounter mistrust and additional scrutiny from teachers and instructors.

Plagiarism consequences for copywriters

Copywriters stake their reputation (and by extension, that of their client or company) on their writing. All copywriters must produce completely original content for their clients.

The consequences for plagiarism here are clear: Copywriters who plagiarize the content of others will quickly find it difficult to obtain paying assignments. Similar to academic situations, it is the copywriter’s own responsibility to ensure that their content is 100% original.

Plagiarism consequences for journalists

Journalists are held to exceptionally high standards of integrity in their writing. A journalist who produces plagiarized content jeopardizes the trust of their readers and publishers. Plagiarism can instantly reduce a journalist’s career by a large margin. The ethical and legal standards issued to journalists are clear: Produce original, well-cited content or find another field.

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A publication of the harvard college writing program.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

• The Honor Code
• How to Avoid Plagiarism

It's not enough to know why plagiarism is taken so seriously in the academic world or to know how to recognize it. You also need to know how to avoid it.

The simplest cases of plagiarism to avoid are the intentional ones: If you copy a paper from a classmate, buy a paper from the Internet, copy material from a book, article, podcast, video, or website without citing the author, you are plagiarizing. Here's the best advice you'll ever receive about avoiding intentional plagiarism: If you're tempted to borrow someone else's ideas or plagiarize in any way because you're pressed for time, nervous about how you're doing in a class, or confused about the assignment, don't do it . The problems you think you're solving by plagiarizing are really minor compared to the problems you will create for yourself by plagiarizing. In every case, the consequences of plagiarism are much more serious than the consequences of turning in a paper late or turning in a paper you're not satisfied to have written.

The consequences of accidental plagiarism are equally daunting and should be avoided at all costs. As a member of an intellectual community you are expected to respect the ideas of others in the same way that you would respect any other property that didn't belong to you, and this is true whether you plagiarize on purpose or by accident. The best way to make sure you don't plagiarize due to confusion or carelessness is to 1) understand what you're doing when you write a paper and 2) follow a method that is systematic and careful as you do your research . In other words, if you have a clear sense of what question you're trying to answer and what knowledge you're building on, and if you keep careful, clear notes along the way, it's much easier to use sources effectively and responsibly and, most of all, to write a successful paper.

If you have questions about plagiarism at any point in your research or writing process, ask. It's always better to ask questions than it is to wait for an instructor to respond to work that you have turned in for a grade. Once you have turned in your final work, you will be held responsible for misuse of sources.

Keep Track of Your Sources; Save PDFs or Print Electronic Source

While it's easy enough to keep a stack of books or journal articles on your desk where you can easily refer back to them, it's just as important to keep track of electronic sources. When you save a PDF of a journal article, make sure you put it into a folder on your computer where you'll be able to find it. When you consult a website, log the URL in a separate document from the paper you're writing so that you'll be able to return to the website and cite it correctly. You should also print or save to PDF the relevant pages from any websites you use, making sure you note the complete URL and the date on which you printed the material. Because electronic sources aren't stable and websites can disappear without notice, beware of directing your readers to sources that might have disappeared. Check when the website you're using was last updated and update the URLs as you work and once again right before you submit your essay. If an electronic source disappears before you submit your work, you will need to decide whether or not to keep the source in your paper. If you have saved the source and can turn it in with your paper, you should do so. If you have not saved the source, you should consult your instructor about whether or not to use that source in your paper.

Keep Sources in Correct Context

Whenever you consult a source, you should make sure you understand the context, both of the ideas within a source and of the source itself. You should also be careful to consider the context in which a source was written. For example, a book of essays published by an organization with a political bias might not present an issue with adequate complexity for your project. You can learn more about how to understand a source’s context in the Evaluating Sources section of this guide.

The question of context can be more complicated when you're working with Internet sources than with print sources because you may see one article or post as separate from an entire website and use or interpret that page without fully understanding or representing its context. For example, a definition of "communism" taken from a website with a particular political agenda might provide one interpretation of the meaning of the word—but if you neglect to mention the context for that definition, you might use it as though it's unbiased when it isn't. If your web search takes you to a URL that’s part of a larger website, make sure to investigate and take notes on the context of the information you're citing.

Research can often turn out to be more time-consuming than you anticipate. Budget enough time to search for sources, to take notes, and to think about how to use the sources in your essay. Moments of carelessness are more common when you leave your essay until the last minute— and when you are tired or stressed. Honest mistakes can lead to charges of plagiarism just as dishonesty can; be careful when taking notes and when incorporating ideas and language from sources so you always know what language and ideas are yours and what belongs to a source.

Don't Cut and Paste: File and Label Your Sources

Keep your own writing and your sources separate.

Work with either the printed copy of your source(s) or (in the case of online sources) the copy you downloaded—not the online version—as you draft your essay. This precaution not only decreases the risk of plagiarism but also enables you to annotate your sources. Those annotations are an essential step both in understanding the sources and in distinguishing your own ideas from those of the sources.

Keep Your Notes and Your Draft Separate

Paraphrase carefully in your notes; acknowledge your sources explicitly when paraphrasing.

When you want to paraphrase material, it's a good idea first to paste the actual quotation into your notes (not directly into your draft) and then to paraphrase it (still in your notes). Putting the information in your own words will help you make sure that you've thought about what the source is saying and that you have a good reason for using it in your paper. Remember to use some form of notation in your notes to indicate what you've paraphrased and mention the author's name within the material you paraphrase. You should also include all citation information in your notes.

Avoid Reading a Classmate's Paper for Inspiration

If you're in a course that requires peer review or workshops of student drafts, you are going to read your classmates' work and discuss it. This is a productive way of exchanging ideas and getting feedback on your work. If you find, in the course of this work, that you wish to use someone else's idea at some point in your paper (you should never use someone else's idea as your thesis, but there may be times when a classmate's idea would work as a counterargument or other point in your paper), you must credit that person the same way you would credit any other source.

If you find yourself reading someone else's paper because you're stuck on an assignment and don't know how to proceed, you may end up creating a problem for yourself because you might unconsciously copy that person's ideas. When you're stuck, make an appointment with your instructor or go to the Writing Center for advice on how to develop your own ideas.

Don't Save Your Citations for Later

Never paraphrase or quote from a source without immediately adding a citation. You should add citations in your notes, in your response papers, in your drafts, and in your revisions. Without them, it's too easy to lose track of where you got a quotation or an idea and to end up inadvertently taking credit for material that's not your own.

Quote Your Sources Properly

Always use quotation marks for directly quoted material, even for short phrases and key terms.

Keep a Source Trail

As you write and revise your essay, make sure that you keep track of your sources in your notes and in each successive draft of your essay. You should begin this process early, even before you start writing your draft. Even after you've handed in your essay, keep all of your research notes and drafts. You ought to be able to reconstruct the path you took from your sources to your notes and from your notes to your drafts and revision. These careful records and clear boundaries between your writing and your sources will help you avoid plagiarism. And if you are called upon to explain your process to your instructor, you'll be able to retrace the path you took when thinking, researching, and writing, from the essay you submitted back through your drafts and to your sources.

• What Constitutes Plagiarism?
• The Exception: Common Knowledge
• Other Scenarios to Avoid
• Why Does it Matter if You Plagiarize?
• Harvard University Plagiarism Policy

PDFs for This Section

• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Online Library and Citation Tools

• Grammar Checker
• Paraphrasing Tool
• Critique Report
• Writing Reports
• Learn Blog Grammar Guide Community Events FAQ
• Grammar Guide

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Free Paraphrasing Tool to Avoid Plagiarism

You've finished your essay, but are worried about plagiarism? We’ve got good news for you. Our free online paraphrasing tool is here to rewrite your texts. Be sure never to be accused of plagiarizing!

In this article, you’ll find:

• The paraphrasing tool;
• Ways to steer clear of plagiarism;
• All you need to know about sentence rewriting;
• Answers to frequently asked questions about this topic.

• What Is a Paraphrasing Tool?
• How to Use the Rewording Tool
• What Makes Our Online Rephrasing Tool Handy?
• How to Reword a Sentence
• How to Reword a Quote

✅ What Is a Paraphrasing Tool?

To paraphrase means to present an idea in different words. A big part of this technique is consulting a thesaurus for synonyms. Luckily, you can put the dull dictionary aside and let the plagiarism changer do the job for you.

When writing a paper, make sure you properly cite all your sources. Also, keep your content unique. Failing to do this will result in plagiarism.

Cue the rephrasing generator. This quick machine:

• Provides alternative word suggestions;
• Replaces any part of speech with synonyms;
• Keeps your intended meaning;
• Guarantees plagiarism-free results.

🖥️ How to Use the Rewording Tool

With our free paraphrasing tool, you can rewrite a text in your own words in a matter of seconds. In this step-by-step guide, you’ll find everything you need to do:

• Open the website and paste your document into the box.
• Click “paraphrase my text.”
• Pick the synonyms you like.
• You’re done! Now you can copy your paraphrased text.
• Be sure to do a plagiarism check. For example, the online writing tool Grammarly has a professional plagiarism checker.

👍 What Makes Our Online Word Changer Handy?

Now that you know how our tool rephrases your sentences, you’re probably wondering why you need it. Here are its benefits;

• Unlike expensive software with the same purpose, it’s free and always available .
• It offers various synonyms to choose from , saving you time, and ensuring that your text still makes sense.
• Rephrasing helps avoid plagiarism .
• The generator can also assist you in creating summaries .

We’ve got your back, but it’s good to know how to stay away from trouble by yourself. Read on to get acquainted with various rewriting strategies.

✏️ How to Rephrase: Strategies to Avoid Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of stealing someone’s intellectual property. It can be deliberate but often happens unintentionally. In academia, this mostly means taking someone’s idea and not crediting the source. But don't worry: there are many ways avoid this. Here are the basics:

• Always using a plagiarism checker . This way, you’ll know for sure that what you’ve written is 100% yours.
• Quoting means adopting the original author’s wording directly and putting it in quotation marks. Make sure to resort to direct quoting only if it strengthens your argument, or if the quote is particularly expressive.
• A summary is a shortened version of the source. You don’t paraphrase its entire contents but break it down into the crucial parts.
• Taking notes while reading articles. Try to formulate the central ideas in simple words. This way, you'll automatically have a first draft of what you want to paraphrase.
• Lastly, changing the sentence structure while paraphrasing will help you sound natural.

Keep reading to learn more about rewording sentences and quotes.

📖 How to Reword a Sentence

Paraphrasing is very similar to summarizing. Both are key skills for writers. With these recommendations, you’ll always rewrite correctly and without plagiarizing.

To some terms, such as "globalization," you’ll hardly find alternatives. However, common words can easily be replaced.

Use various conjunctions or break the sentences up.

Replace nouns with verbs, verbs with adjectives, or vice versa.

This includes:

• Switching the voice from passive to active and the other way round.
• Turning clauses into phrases and vice versa, e.g., by omitting or adding pronouns.

This being said, the most effective method to rephrase something is by using all these techniques combined. Here are some examples:

“Categorization has become a major field of study, thanks primarily to the pioneering work of Eleanor Rosch, who made categorization an issue. (Lakoff 1987: 7)”

“Eleanor Rosch, who was the first to point out the importance of categorization, paved the way to make it an important subject. (see Lakoff 1987: 7)”

In this version, you can see multiple strategies at work. The structure is different, and all possible words were substituted. Yet, it still contains the original meaning. That’s precisely what we want!

Let’s have a look at this variant instead:

Paraphrase:

“Categorization is now a major field of study. It can be credited to the pioneering work of Eleanor Rosch, the first person to make categorization an issue.”

While the voice is switched in this paraphrase, it still is too close to the original. It uses the same wording and doesn’t credit the source.

Here’s another example:

“In a rare instance of consensus, linguists agree that grammar is extremely complex and hard to properly describe. (Langacker 2008: 27)”

“Linguists rarely agree with each other, but they all acknowledge that grammar is problematic and that it’s nearly impossible to explain it correctly. (Langacker 2008: 27)”

This version has synonyms and adds an extra preposition. Unfortunately, the alternatives "problematic" and "explain" tamper with the original meaning. Let's see how to paraphrase this paragraph properly:

“While linguists rarely share the same opinions, they all admit that grammar is almost impossible to depict comprehensively due to its intricate nature. (Langacker 2008: 27)”

In this case, the concept stays the same. The phrases are changed; there are a new structure and extra conjunction. Perfect!

💬 How to Reword a Quote

If you want your assignments to sound natural, provide the proper context for your quotes. It includes introducing them with phrases such as according to, in the words of, as defined by . Citing is appropriate, if:

• The wording is especially valuable;
• You need to support a claim;
• You want to debate and analyze the author’s position.

When writing, use a mix of direct quotes and paraphrases with an emphasis on the latter. Once you cite a source, adhere to specific standards. Stick to any one of these styles throughout your entire text:

• An in-text APA style reference can be either narrative , e.g. Zaliznyak & Šmelev, 1997, or parenthetical , e.g. (Zaliznyak & Šmelev, 1997).
• MLA formatting style requires the author’s last name and the page, for example, Clasmeier 37.
• When citing Chicago style , all source data (name, title, publisher, year, page) goes into the footnotes.

We're happy if this article was useful to you. And don't forget: if you want to save yourself some time, try our free paraphrasing tool!

📌 Is Rewording Plagiarism?

📌 how do you rewrite articles in your own words, 📌 can i use the rewriting tool to avoid plagiarism.

Updated: Apr 5th, 2024

🔗 References

• Avoiding Plagiarism: Choosing Whether to Quote or to Paraphrase: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Quoting: Australia University
• Quoting, Paraphrasing, & Summarizing: Ashford University
• Paraphrasing: American Psychological Association
• Chicago Quoting and Paraphrasing: Massey University
• MLA In-Text Citations: Purdue University

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Accidental plagiarism, paraphrases without attribution, neglected and misquoted sources are the factors or problems that often set apart a great paper and a poor one, the proper writing style and the unacceptable. They can make a huge difference, and whoever chooses to ignore this is guaranteed to have plenty of unpleasant surprises. Deliberate plagiarism and block copy-pasting may be less common now that they are instantly detectable, but getting all your citations and sources together for a paper is still not an easy task. A free plagiarism checker proves to be of great help with this. Besides, you do not always have to pay money to try using one. Noplag plagiarism checker grants up to 10 free checks to newcomers, so noplag.com/free-plagiarism-checker is the right place for anyone looking for “try before you buy” offers. You don’t even have to register in order to get your free checks and be welcomed to exploring our service.

2. How Noplag free plagiarism scanner works?

Just submit a text by copy-pasting it into the checking area, with the “Start Checking” button below to be clicked on in order to start the process of comparing your text to lots of Internet and electronic sources. An efficient and quality free plagiarism checker such as Noplag is so convenient because it provides a plagiarism report that is both accurate and fast.

3. Free Plagiarism report review

A plagiarism report is so much more than just an overall percentage! The results you get after your scanning is completed can be used to assemble a proper bibliography, to track down any lost sources, paraphrases or closely rewritten sentences of the source text without citations. All matches detected are not only highlighted with individual percentages provided, but have source links listed next to the free plagiarism checking area results. The professional version of the Noplag scanner offers a variety of added features that make it even more convenient. Fast, detailed and accurate - Noplag plagiarism checker is the one that comes, conquers and delivers.

Accurate checks at a reasonable price – is this possible? It is, if you aim at creating a product that meets the needs of a variety of users, not just the ones with a considerable budget and lots of documents to scan for plagiarism on a regular basis. That\'s why an innovative Noplag online service was created with maximum effectiveness in mind, based on advanced algorithms of checking your texts against the Internet, public repositories and Noplag extensive database of academic papers. It is very fast, as compared to other plagiarism scanners, and provides a detailed plagiarism report that you can send and share. So don\'t let plagiarism issues slow you down any more, deal with them in the fastest and most effective way that modern technology provides!

Noplag offers:

• Plagiarism checker for universities/colleges/schools;
• Plagiarism checker for students/teachers/academics;
• Plagiarism checker for freelance writers, website owners, bloggers/journalists;

and anyone else wishing to find out if their written work contains plagiarism.

Everything that has once been problematic about plagiarism or its detection can be easily avoided today. Many people continue to carelessly think that plagiarism may be a problem, but it\'s not THEIR problem. We can agree, but this definition is missing one main component: a high quality plagiarism checker. If you are using a reliable, efficient and accurate service such as Noplag to check for plagiarism , and it provides fast, detailed, easy-to-interpret results, you can rest assured that plagiarism is not your problem.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free plagiarism check.

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How to Avoid Plagiarism | Tips on Citing Sources

Published on 6 December 2021 by Tegan George . Revised on 3 April 2023.

When you write an academic paper, you build upon the work of others and use various credible sources for information and evidence. To avoid plagiarism, you need to correctly incorporate these sources into your text.

• Keeping track of the sources you consult in your research
• Paraphrasing or quoting from your sources (and adding your own ideas)
• Crediting the original author in an in-text citation and in your reference list
• Using a plagiarism checker before you submit

Even accidental plagiarism can have serious consequences , so take care with how you integrate sources into your writing.

Table of contents

Keeping track of your sources, avoiding plagiarism when quoting, avoiding plagiarism when paraphrasing, citing your sources correctly, using a plagiarism checker, checklist: plagiarism prevention, free lecture slides, frequently asked questions about plagiarism.

One of the most common ways that students commit plagiarism is by simply forgetting where an idea came from and unintentionally presenting it as their own. You can easily avoid this pitfall by keeping your notes organised and compiling a list of citations as you go.

Clearly label which thoughts are yours and which aren’t in your notes, highlight statements that need citations, and carefully mark any text copied directly from a source with quotation marks.

In the example below, red indicates a claim that requires a source, blue indicates information paraphrased or summarised from a source, and green indicates a direct quotation.

Notes for my paper on global warming

• Greenhouse gas emissions trap heat and raise global temperatures [cite details]
• Causes more severe weather: hurricanes, fires, water scarcity [cite examples]
• Animal habitats across the world are under threat from climate change [cite examples]
• Just this year, 23 species have been declared extinct (BBC News 2021)
• ‘Animals are changing shape… some are growing bigger wings, some are sprouting longer ears and others are growing larger bills’ in order to cool off (Zeldovich 2021)

Managing sources with the Scribbr Citation Generator

To make your life easier later, make sure to write down the full details of every source you consult. That includes not only books and journal articles, but also things like websites, magazine articles, and videos. This makes it easy to go back and check where you found a phrase, fact, or idea that you want to use in your paper.

Scribbr’s Citation Generator allows you to start building and managing your reference list as you go, saving time later. When you’re ready to submit, simply download your reference list!

Generate accurate citations with Scribbr

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check..

Quoting means copying a piece of text word for word. The copied text must be introduced in your own words, enclosed in quotation marks , and correctly attributed to the original author.

In general, quote sparingly. Quotes are appropriate when:

• You’re using an exact definition, introduced by the original author
• It is impossible for you to rephrase the original text without losing its meaning
• You’re analyzing the use of language in the original text
• You want to maintain the authority and style of the author’s words

Long quotations should be formatted as block quotes . But for longer blocks of text, it’s usually better to paraphrase instead.

Paraphrasing means using your own words to explain something from a source.

Paraphrasing does not mean just switching out a few words from a copy-pasted text. To paraphrase properly, you should rewrite the author’s point in your own words to show that you have fully understood it.

Every time you quote or paraphrase, you must include an in-text or footnote citation clearly identifying the original author. Each citation must correspond to a full reference in the reference list or bibliography at the end of your paper.

This acknowledges the source of your information, avoiding plagiarism, and it helps your readers locate the source for themselves if they would like to learn more.

There are many different citation styles, each with its own rules. Your instructor may assign a particular style for you to use, or you may be able to choose. The most important thing is to apply one style consistently throughout the text.

The examples below follow APA Style .

Citing a single source

Citing multiple sources

If you quote multiple sources in one sentence, make sure to cite them separately so that it’s clear which material came from which source.

To create correctly formatted source citations, you can use our free Citation Generator.

APA Citation Generator MLA Citation Generator

And if you’re citing in APA Style, consider using Scribbr’s Citation Checker , a unique tool that scans your citations for errors. It can detect inconsistencies between your in-text citations and your reference list, as well as making sure your citations are flawlessly formatted.

Most universities use plagiarism checkers like Turnitin to detect potential plagiarism. Here’s how plagiarism checkers work : they scan your document, compare it to a database of webpages and publications, and highlight passages that appear similar to other texts.

Consider using a plagiarism checker yourself before submitting your paper. This allows you to identify issues that could constitute accidental plagiarism, such as:

• Forgotten or misplaced citations
• Missing quotation marks
• Paraphrased material that’s too similar to the original text

Then you can easily fix any instances of potential plagiarism.

There are differences in accuracy and safety between plagiarism checkers. To help students choose, we conducted extensive research comparing the best plagiarism checkers .

When using someone else’s exact words, I have properly formatted them as a quote .

When using someone else’s ideas, I have properly paraphrased , expressing the idea completely in my own words.

I have included an in-text citation every time I use words, ideas, or information from a source.

Every source I cited is included in my reference list or bibliography .

I have consistently followed the rules of my required citation style .

I have not committed self-plagiarism by reusing any part of a previous paper.

I have used a reliable plagiarism checker as a final check.

Your document should be free from plagiarism!

Are you a teacher or lecturer who would like to educate your students about plagiarism? You can download our free lecture slides, available for Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

Accidental plagiarism is one of the most common examples of plagiarism . Perhaps you forgot to cite a source, or paraphrased something a bit too closely. Maybe you can’t remember where you got an idea from, and aren’t totally sure if it’s original or not.

These all count as plagiarism, even though you didn’t do it on purpose. When in doubt, make sure you’re citing your sources . Also consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.

Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.

To avoid plagiarism when summarising an article or other source, follow these two rules:

• Write the summary entirely in your own words by   paraphrasing the author’s ideas.
• Reference the source with an in-text citation and a full reference so your reader can easily find the original text.

Plagiarism can be detected by your professor or readers if the tone, formatting, or style of your text is different in different parts of your paper, or if they’re familiar with the plagiarised source.

Many universities also use   plagiarism detection software like Turnitin’s, which compares your text to a large database of other sources, flagging any similarities that come up.

It can be easier than you think to commit plagiarism by accident. Consider using a   plagiarism checker prior to submitting your essay to ensure you haven’t missed any citations.

Some examples of plagiarism include:

• Copying and pasting a Wikipedia article into the body of an assignment
• Quoting a source without including a citation
• Not paraphrasing a source properly (e.g. maintaining wording too close to the original)
• Forgetting to cite the source of an idea

The most surefire way to   avoid plagiarism is to always cite your sources . When in doubt, cite!

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

George, T. (2023, April 03). How to Avoid Plagiarism | Tips on Citing Sources. Scribbr. Retrieved 5 August 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/preventing-plagiarism/avoiding-plagiarism/

Is this article helpful?

Tegan George

Other students also liked, consequences of mild, moderate & severe plagiarism, the 5 types of plagiarism | explanations & examples, what is self-plagiarism | definition & how to avoid it.

Essay Rewriter Tool for Students

The Essay Rewriter tool is easy to use. Follow these steps to obtain a perfectly paraphrased text.

• Copy the original that you need to rewrite.
• Paste it into the tool, checking if the text length doesn’t exceed the limit.
• Select the required paraphrasing rate.
• Press the “Rewrite” button.
• Copy the result for further use.

Wondering how to avoid plagiarism in a paper or article? You are welcome to use the essay rewriter tool above. It was designed for academic purposes. Easily paraphrase texts in no time!

• ✅ The Benefits of the Tool
• ✍️ Avoiding Plagiarism with a Rewriter

🆚 Quoting vs. Rewriting vs. Plagiarism

🔗 references, ✅ essay rewriter: 5 key benefits.

• It helps to avoid plagiarism. Not all plagiarism happens intendedly. Essay Rewriter eliminates the human factor in paraphrasing. It provides you with a text that contains a preset quantity of original words.
• It is specially designed for students. The rephrasing is neither too academic nor conversational. The style of the resulting text perfectly fits all educational requirements.
• It is simple to use. It would be strange to waste your time exploring a tool that should save it. Essay Rewriter is intuitively clear. You can open the web page and use it straight away.
• It has an adjustable percentage of paraphrased words. Sometimes you need to preserve some part of the original. Try various rates to choose the best result.
• It is equally functional on computers and mobile devices. You can use the tool at home or college from your smartphone. All the features will be available in the mobile version.

✍️ Rewriter Tool: An Easy Way to Avoid Plagiarism

Want to know when rewriting means plagiarizing?

It is easy.

When you use someone else’s intellectual property, pretending it’s your own, you plagiarize. When you reword a text that another person wrote without referencing the original, it is plagiarism.

Unfortunately, even if you unwillingly copy someone’s text, it is also punishable . The consequences range from lowered marks and reprimanding to expulsion from the educational institution or research community. Nobody likes plagiarizers. People perceive them as thieves.

Still, every researcher resorts to paraphrasing. What is the recipe for the balance between rewriting and plagiarism? The short answer is, always mention the original . There are more nuances, like retelling the text with your own words rather than using synonyms here and there. But whichever method or app you use, give credit to the author.

When you wish to use someone else’s words as a part of your writing, you insert a quote . In this case, you are supposed to enclose the phrase or sentence in quotation marks to signal that you are quoting. After that, include a citation with page number and author’s name.

When should you quote?

There is a general rule that if more than four words in a row match the source, you should enclose them in quotation marks.

But if the sentence or paragraph you wish to use is too long, it is better to paraphrase it. In such a case, quotation marks are unnecessary. Still, paraphrases also require citations at the end of the rewritten text and in the list of references. Make sure to modify the words and their order to avoid plagiarism.

You can consult the examples of quoting, rewriting, and plagiarism examples below. Compare them to find out the difference and never have problems using someone else’s text in your research article or essay.

Quoting: Example

The quote from a book by Oliver Sacks below contains quotation marks and a reference to the original according to APA citation style.

“The scientific study of the relationship between brain and mind began in 1861, when Broca, in France, found that specific difficulties in the expressive use of speech, aphasia, consistently followed damage to a particular portion of the left hemisphere of the brain. This opened the way to cerebral neurology, which made it possible, over the decades, to ‘map’ the human brain, ascribing specific powers — linguistic, intellectual, perceptual, etc. — to equally specific ‘centers’ in the brain. Toward the end of the century it became evident to more acute observers that this sort of mapping was too simple, that all mental performances had an intricate internal structure, and must have an equally complex physiological basis.” (Sacks, 1998, p. 5)

Rewriting: Example

The rewriting sample below contains all the essential features. All the grammatical structures of the sentences have been modified. Most words have been replaced with synonyms, and most importantly, it contains a reference to the original . You can use this example as a good one.

In “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales,” Sacks (1998) describes the beginning of the research on brain and mind. In particular, Broca was the first to discover the relationship between aphasia and the damaged section of the left hemisphere. This finding started a breakthrough in cerebral neurology. In some decades, people described the brain’s structure with respect to its functions and the centers responsible for them. Later, researchers found that this approach overly simplified mental processes. On the contrary, the human brain has a complicated psychological structure, and its functioning is much more intricate.

Plagiarism: Example

This plagiarism sample does not change the sentence structure and frequently uses the same word order. Deleting the subordinate parts of sentences and changing some words with synonyms does not suffice for a good rewriting. Plagiarism checkers will recognize this passage as the original . But if your poor rewriting is revealed, you will be punished. Its main drawback is the absence of credit to the original.

The study of the brain and mind began in 1861 when Broca found that specific difficulties in the expressive use of speech usually followed damage to the left hemisphere of the brain. This gave impetus to the development of cerebral neurology, which made it possible to ‘map’ the human brain. Scientists ascribed specific powers — intellectual, linguistic, perceptual, etc. — to some particular areas in the brain. At the end of the century, it became evident that such mapping was too simple. Therefore, all mental activities had a complicated internal structure, and they must have an equally intricate physiological basis.

Hope the tips and examples above are useful for you. By the way, summarizing the sources you use is another way to avoid plagiarism – in case you mention the author, of course. If you need to summarize anything, use our free tool !

❓ Essay Rewriter Tool: FAQ

Rewrite means paraphrasing the original writing to obtain a new text. The level of plagiarism defines the quality of rewriting, i.e., the lower, the better. Currently, there are hundreds of free online rewriting tools, including Essay Rewriter, that can transform any text into an original with zero plagiarism.

• Read the source, making notes of the essentials.
• Start each sentence from a different point, as compared to the original.
• Rewrite only the most significant parts, leaving out the less critical ones.
• Skip all the previous issues and automatize the process with Essay Rewriter.

Essay Rewriter is the best online tool to rewrite an article. It allows choosing the paraphrasing level, depending on your needs. The entire process requires a couple of clicks. Its primary benefit is that it is absolutely free and simple to use.

Article rewriting is legal as long as you include a proper reference to the source and paraphrase it sufficiently to look original. Otherwise, the copyright holder may reveal your infringement. It can entail legal, financial, or reputational consequences. But the use of shared knowledge does not require any credit to the original. For example, the names of capitals, presidents, or nationalities are common knowledge.

Updated: Jun 28th, 2024

• 6 Ways to Rewrite Someone Else's Short Story - wikiHow
• How to Avoid Plagiarism: 5 Easy Methods | Grammarly
• Plagiarism | University of Oxford
• Quoting and Paraphrasing - UW-Madison Writing Center
• Paraphrase: Write It in Your Own Words - Purdue OWL
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Need to rephrase your text without wasting much time on the task? IvyPanda's free essay rewriter tool will make paraphrasing much quicker and easier. Just paste your text, choose the paraphrasing rate, and get a unique result within a few seconds!

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Review: 10 Sites That Check For Plagiarism

If you are a teacher or some type of instructor at an educational institution or you need to check the work of people regularly for originality, you can use a wide variety of tools for a plagiarism check that can help you to see if work is original or if you need to tell the author that they should quote a source for their obviously copied work. Here is list of ten sites that you can use, along with a quick review of each one and our results from a test run of the content.

For our sample purposes, we have used content from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism to see how each tool performs.

1. Copyscape.com (Free/Paid)

This tool is free, but if you want more results and details, you need to purchase the premium version of this tool. The premium version charges you five cents per page for the plagiarism check for each page that is checked with the tool. You simply cut and paste your URL into the given search box and the tool searches around online to see if there are copies of your content on the net.

Pros: You can get an accurate picture of any of your content that is being copied and the magnitude of that being copied;

Cons: You have to pay 5 cents per copy check

When we plugged in the URL of the content from the site, we received a list of 10 sites that apparently have similar content. The content listed includes exact matches, content that is similar to your copy, partial copies and content that has been modified from your original form.

2. Grammarly.com (Free Trial/Paid) Winner "Accuracy"

This tool is free to run your content, but once the results come up you are prompted to sign up for a free 7 day trial. Although you can cancel your subscription before those seven days are up, you can also choose a subscription plan – the options are $29.95 a month, $59.95 quarterly or $139.95 annually.

Pros: The information that is given back to you is pretty accurate.

Cons: This is a paid side and the details given for the content are pretty intense, most people won't really get it unless they have a university degree in English.

We took a couple of paragraphs of the content and pasted it into the box. The results we got back included a score of 42 out of 100, "weak, needs revision". Unoriginal text was detected, there was some issue with sentence structure, and there were six apparent issues with the writing style and vocabulary use. Of course, you would have to pay for a membership to see what those issues were.

3. Writecheck.com (Paid only)

This tool is not free, in fact it actually requires that you sign up for an account and choose a payment option, the lowest cost one being $7.95 per paper check. This site is geared towards university or college students who want to turn a paper in to their instructor and want to ensure that it is accurate and well-cited as well as being free from plagiarism. Upon submission, the writing is checked for similarities and phrases and quotes that are not cited against 250 million student papers, 110,000 published works and the world wide web.

Pros: This is one of the most comprehensive plagiarism checkers available online.

Cons: It's not free and can be quite costly for a single use. There is no option for a free check to see if you like the tool before you buy.

4. Plagscan.com (Paid only)

This is another way to detect plagiarism that is not free. You can't even run a free trial to see if you like the interface of this tool, it prompts you immediately to sign up for a paid account running on a system that they call "Plag Points". Each "Plag Point" allows you to analyse 100 words or a fraction of a document. Obviously, we did not test this one out, but it seems like it is pretty much on par as far as cost compared to other paid sites. There is quite a bit of detail that is returned to you as the user when you run a scan using this tool.

Pros: You can cancel your membership if you do try the site and don't like it.

Cons: You can't try the service before you make a purchase. If you want to cancel your membership you need to explain why. As far as we are concerned, if you are not happy, there is a reason, but you shouldn't have to explain yourself.

5. Turnitin.com (Paid only)

This site is geared towards teaching professionals and is generally meant for institutions who wish to open an account in the name of the school. The motto of the site is to prevent plagiarism and motivate students. The school has to get a quote of what it would cost for a membership, then the paper in question can be entered into the system to be checked. Originality reports details where matches are found to other papers in the database. Sources are listed and instructors can filter so that quotes are eliminated. The cost of this program may not be worth it if you are not using it every day for several projects daily.

Pros: Very useful for instructors – can create a data base of students and where they stand – can be used as a tool to help students to strengthen their writing skills.

Cons: Geared towards schools and instructors, not webmasters.

6. Plagium.com (Free, but...)

This site is free to use, but does request a donation if you like the service. When we entered a few paragraphs of text from the linked page, it returned 9 possible content matches. Five of those had copied the content 100%, although one of those was the original site. You can get a pretty good idea of how original or copied the content is.

Pros: The program is completely free to use.

Cons: There is not much detail around what you are looking at as far as analysis, but the program does provide a list of sites where duplicate content has been found.

7. Scanmyessay (Paid, Currently offline)

This site shows a free download, but we did not do the free download because we didn't want to deal with the nag that would pop up for payment after the initial trial. We just found this one to be mentioned quite a bit online and thought it was a good program to include in our list of possible content copy checkers. There is a full description of how the downloaded program works to identify plagiarism and it seems to hit all of the highlights that most programs do. As we said before, we are not sure if you would need to pay for the program after a download, because we did not proceed with the download.

Pros: Nothing really.

Cons: Not sure if there is a fee to use the program or if you are charged to see the results that come up after you have scanned your material.

8. Plagiarism-detect.com (Free) Winner "Free" (Currently offline)

As far as free sites to check for plagiarism go, this one is quite detailed and pretty accurate. The results were quick and listed right there on the screen for us to see, so it took the guesswork out of what we were checking. The interface of the tool was quite plain and simple to view, so it was not at all confusing. On the left two boxes show up that show the number of the words in the text and the sentences that are believed to be copied from another source. You can save the results, print them or insert a new project by clearing out the box. This is a pretty good program for a freebie.

Pros: Free to use, fast results. The details are clear and simple to read and provide a good amount of information that is useful.

Cons: None, that we could see right away, but if we continued to use the tool, some may arise for sure.

9. Dustball.com (Free, but...)

This is another free tool that lets you copy your content into the box to be checked. We did just that and found that the exact content that we had copied into other free sites did not return the same amount of accuracy. Only two short sentence fragments were returned as "possible plagiarism" which does not instill much confidence, especially given the detail we saw in some of the earlier free programs we tried with much more detailed results.

Pros: Free to use with a paid version also available.

Cons: Not sure how accurate the free version really is. The more text you paste in the longer the check takes. If you are dealing with a long essay, it seems like the check could take an hour.

10. Plagiarisma.net (Free, but...)

This free tool allows you to cut and paste your content into the box and select several search engines to run the check. The end result pops up with a list of sites that contain duplicate content. This site showed the actual content that was duplicated (for free), not just the sites that had the content. Not all of the sites that were listed by Grammarly and Copyscape showed up, interestingly enough. We did not really want to trust the results on this one since we saw more accurate results from other free sites that we had already tried.

Pros: Free to use.

Cons: Not too certain how accurate the results are.

Tips For Webmasters

When you run a plagiarism check it is important to understand the results. Paid tools probably have more instructions than free ones, so that is important to note. If you are looking for a free tool, then the selection of good ones is pretty limited. Anyway, you need to try and compare them to see which one you like the best. Some have complicated interfaces while others are quite plain and simple to use. If you only plan on checking a few documents once in a while and are not too concerned with accuracy, then a free online tool may be enough for your purposes.

If, however, you are a teacher or have your own website and are concerned about content theft (without proper accreditation) then you should consider a paid tool that will provide you with accurate information and where exactly you can find your copied content. Many people will copy your content and that, in itself is fine, so long as they give you a backlink for that content and provide the source of the original content in their reproduction.

Unfortunately, not so many people are that honest and you may have to hunt around online to ensure that you are not being ripped off by content grabbers. If it is a big concern to you, then you can use certain types of anti-theft publication tools where the content cannot be easily copied or printed if someone wants to reproduce it.

Anti-copying can be made possible by disabling the right click option when people scan your content ( Source ). However, in many cases, current browsers are immune to these "right-click prevention"-scripts, and several of these methods are not working any longer.

Check online often and run your content to see if it has been reproduced. Even with the most stringent anti-copying measures, there are still people that will find a way to copy your content without your permission. Take all of the necessary precautions and make sure that your content is not stolen from your site.

Do you have any tips to share on how to prevent plagiarism being a webmaster? Please share in the comments below...

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How to really avoid plagiarism in essay writing

(Last updated: 13 May 2021)

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Today we are talking about avoiding plagiarism. Oh, plagiarism – the nemesis of so many a student, and so many a university institution. Students dislike it because it’s an easy trap to fall into; universities loathe it because too many students aren’t aware of what it really is and how to avoid it.

We get asked a lot of questions about plagiarism; what it means, what is acceptable, and what is not acceptable. Fortunately, we know an awful lot about plagiarism, and we’re here to clear up many of the misconceptions out there.

In this article, we’ll outline some of the main aspects of plagiarism and what you should (and should not) do when writing an academic paper.

What constitutes plagiarism?

What exactly is plagiarism? To help us understand the answer to this question, let's look at the Cambridge Dictionary definition :

"Plagiarise (verb): to use another person's ideas or work and pretend that it is your own."

The key in this definition is "pretend". In all of your essay and dissertation writing at university level and above, you cannot attempt to pass off any words, phrases or specific authors' ideas off as your own.

But what kind of behaviour is and isn't allowed under general university regulations?

Let’s start with the obvious; you cannot just buy an essay and submit it wholly in its original form to your instructor. This is using someone else’s work and is outright cheating. You also shouldn’t have a friend write it for you, or copy parts of your friend’s assignment. Not only can this get you in trouble, but probably your friend as well. Plus, who is to say that your friend is a better writer than you anyways?

Let’s keep going. Did you also know that you can’t resubmit an assignment for one class that you previously submitted to another? That’s known as self-plagiarism and it’s also a big no-no.

Universities around the world take academic integrity very seriously. In fact there’s usually a code of conduct as a part of each university framework which each student should read. Plagiarism is one part of academic integrity, and it’s something that you, as a student, should take seriously too. It’s important to remember that the rules you had in secondary school may not apply and the rules you have in your home country may not apply. The rules aren’t that difficult once you know them, but you have to actually know them in the first place.

So, you might be asking, why should you care? Well, first of all, if you are caught plagiarising, bad things can happen.

We’ll discuss the bad stuff first, before we work on how you can avoid it. At many universities, if you are suspected of an academic offence, which includes plagiarism, you first have to meet with your instructor. If you are found to have plagiarised, you could get a mark of zero or get referred to the Dean/Departmental Head for sanctions. For more serious issues there may be a tribunal and you could ultimately be dismissed from the school. Wouldn’t you rather be spending your time elsewhere, not dealing with an academic offence?

Instructors, professors and administrators are commonly told, “But I didn’t know I was committing an academic offence!”. Universities generally hold the position that it is your responsibility to know, so this is not a good excuse. We refer you back to the statement above where it says to read the code of conduct for your university. As a student, you are expected to know the rules, so pleading ignorance just isn’t acceptable.

All of this negative information is not meant to scare you, but is really meant to clarify what simply is not okay. It is important to also know what you can do. Here are some common points and questions and our best answers.

Referencing and citing

A piece of academic writing needs to be your own thoughts, but when you get to university level, your professors are going to expect more from you than just your own opinions. They are going to expect you to read, and then to incorporate that reading into your own writing to help you to formulate and support your arguments. This means you are going to have to reference other people’s work.

Why should I reference?

One of the main reasons why you should reference is that it actually shows your instructor that you have done the reading. Those who read should get credit for it. You want to show your instructor that you have actually read a wide range of sources and that you have been able to integrate those points effectively into your own argument. This is in addition to the fact that you should reference because sometimes the opinions you are giving aren’t your own. And if you are using someone else’s opinions, you should give them credit.

So, then when should I reference?

Many undergraduate students think that they should reference pretty much every sentence, but this is not the case. You should only include sources that you have actually read and that are relevant to your assignment topic. But that’s a whole other story on how to write an academic paper. In order to avoid plagiarism, you should reference if you use someone else’s idea in your assignment. You do not need to reference if what you are saying is common knowledge.

How do I know what’s an opinion and what’s common knowledge?

Common knowledge is a fact, so for example if you said, the capital of Canada is Ottawa, or that the Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da Vinci, or that World War I began in 1914 or that smoking is harmful…you wouldn’t need to provide a reference. It’s easily verified or taken for granted. You need to start referencing when you move away from these generic ideas to ones that identify the authors’ position in some way. So if it’s someone else’s idea, you need a reference.

How do I reference?

The first thing you should do is determine what referencing style your department uses. Many instructors will tell you in your course syllabus, but if you are unsure, ask your TA or your professor. Different referencing styles mean different formatting rules, so make sure to read up on the one that is applicable to you. If you are unsure, there are some really good guides available on the internet and each referencing style has its own website with specific guidelines. Some are easier to make sense of than others.

In addition, there are different ways to incorporate other people’s ideas into your own work. Typically, you’re either using direct quotes or you are paraphrasing. If you are using direct quotes, you need quotation marks. You also need to know where the quote has come from – like the page number. Keeping good notes is important. For example, let’s say you are reading a textbook and you come across a passage that you think is really important. You then copy down this passage into your notebook. Three weeks later, you are reading through your notes trying to write your assignment. You come across the passage and now you incorporate that into your assignment…but you don’t reference it. That’s plagiarism. Careful note taking would have ensured that you maintained your academic integrity.

In addition, think about the formatting of longer quotes. Some referencing styles want longer quotes to be separate from the other text and indented further from the margin. Check which rules apply to the referencing style you are using in order to ensure success.

Paraphrasing means to read someone else’s work and then to highlight the main points in your own words. If you paraphrase, you still need to provide a reference. If you are highlighting a specific passage you will need the author, year of publication and the page number. If you are just generally discussing the work, usually just the author and the year will do. Again, check the guidelines of your referencing style to make sure you get it right. With paraphrasing, it is not OK to just change a few words and then say it is your own. You still need a reference. Always.

What should appear in my reference list or footnotes?

In your reference list or your footnotes, you should record the works cited in your paper. The general rule is, if the author appears in your paper, you should reference them in your bibliography, reference list or footnotes. If the author does not appear in your paper, but you have just done some additional reading, the reference does not need to appear. This is assuming that you have correctly cited the ideas in your paper to the appropriate authors.

Seeking help

English is not my first language and i am concerned that my essay will not be edited properly or have the correct grammar. can i get help.

Yes! It is certainly acceptable to seek help with grammatical or structural concerns. There are a few things you should recognise, however, in relation to plagiarism. First, if you take your work to an editor and they make substantial changes to it, this can often be seen as plagiarism. This is because the original work has now been altered to a point where it is not your original thoughts, and so this can get you in trouble.

As for grammar, the rules seem a bit more unclear. Some universities will allow you to employ someone to check your grammar; others want you to state in your paper that you have employed the services of a proof-reader. Some universities reserve proofreading for graduate-level work and prohibit undergraduates from using this service – others are more flexible. So, here, we again suggest checking the regulations of your school before asking for someone to make changes to your paper.

You also should not write your paper in your first language and run it through translation software (e.g. Google Translate). This is generally considered plagiarism. This is because the words that you are obtaining from the translation software program are not technically your words. In addition to the fact that you should not do this, it also is not a very good strategy from practical purposes. Translation software is not yet at the stage where the sentences come across very coherent; the grammar is often still questionable. Also, when writing a paragraph, the way something is composed in a second language is not the same as the way it would be in English. So while plagiarism may be the concern with this strategy, it is generally one that should be avoided.

If I am completely lost with an assignment, can I ask for help?

Yes. Asking for help is great. There is no reason that you should try and struggle through an assignment all on your own, especially if you are really unclear about the topic. Yet there are certain people you should probably focus on more than others. First, ask your professor or the teaching assistant for help. They are going to be the ones marking your work, so they are a great first point of contact. On the contrary, you should probably not ask your friends for help, especially if they are in your class. This is because if you work with another person in your class on an assignment, this can become collusion. While you don’t need to know the finer details of this, it can get both you and your friend in a bit of trouble.

A solution to this would be to seek outside assistance. This can come in various forms. Firstly, you could find a private tutor – someone who can help you to organise your ideas and thoughts and explain what a good paper/paragraph can actually look like.

Secondly, using a professionally written model essay as inspiration for your own writing can be extremely helpful. Remember, you can't submit a model essay and try to pass it off as your own. But you can learn from it, paying attention to the language used, the way sentences and the argument are crafted, and how the essay flows (and more).

Be careful, though – the web is a minefield of poorly written essays and you may be asked to pay money for work that is very substandard. Not only will this be expensive and not provide much help, a bad essay could actually make your essay writing skills worse . Instead, use a reputable, trusted, British company, like us folk here at Oxbridge Essays .

We are meticulous in choosing the academic writers we hire. We ensure they have only studied at top universities and institutions, including Oxford and Cambridge, and that they are experts in their field(s). This means the work we produce is of the highest quality and academic standard. Choosing a trusted company like us will not only help you greatly with your studies, but will save you precious time searching for the right resources. What's more, all of the essays we write are 100% original, so you can be certain we haven't just recycled an essay from a stockpile; we tailor our service to every individual student's needs.

Universities generally have few rules about tutors, because while they want students to work independently, they also recognise that many students need a bit of extra help. This is where tutoring and support can be really valuable . It can cost a bit of extra money to get this support. But it may be worth it in the long run if you get a distinction score in the class, which eventually leads to more job opportunities.

In summary…

Plagiarism may seem like a complicated issue, but it is really very closely aligned with honesty. The university you are enrolled in wants you to act with a certain element of integrity and wants to make sure that you are responsible for the work that you have created. Make sure you know the rules of the university at the beginning, not after the fact. Get help when you need it and give credit where it is due.

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Q. How can I check my paper for plagiarism before submitting it to my instructor?

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Answered By: APUS Librarians Last Updated: Jul 09, 2024     Views: 834959

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to be mindful about your sources during the research and writing process:

• Carefully keep track of your research before you write .  A research journal and citation management tool can be a big help.
• Make sure you paraphrase or quote your sources correctly as you write . 
• Double-check that you've correctly cited all of your sources after you write.  ( Use your style guide! )

See also : Where can I have my paper proofread or reviewed?

Please note : The official plagiarism detection tool used by the University is Turnitin (read more below).  The University and the Library do not endorse the free checkers linked above and cannot guarantee that their results will be accepted by your professor. 

APUS subscribes to Turnitin , which is integrated into the classroom Assignments tool.  The library does not have access to this feature in the classroom, so please contact your instructor with questions.    Click here to learn more about Turnitin at APUS.

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What Is Plagiarism? Definition and How to Avoid It at All Costs

July 30, 2024

by Rebecca Reynoso

• Examples of plagiarism
• How to check for plagiarism

Plagiarism checker software

Plagiarism faqs.

Plagiarism isn’t an academic word that disappears once you graduate.

Plagiarism isn’t as simple as borrowing someone else’s work, either. In short, plagiarism is theft. Whether written, multimedia (images, videos, graphics, music), or spoken word, using someone else’s content without proper attribution to the original source falls within the realm of plagiarism. 

Many people utilize plagiarism checkers to avoid any time of funny business in their writing and double-check the legitimacy. 

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the uncredited use of a person’s proprietary content that is passed off as original content by someone else.

You’ve heard about plagiarism more times than you can count but still don’t understand what the big deal is. Everyone does it, right? (No, they don’t.)

Plagiarism, though not technically illegal or criminal, can classify as a crime depending on the severity of the case. If you’re copying an essay, quotes from a book, an online resource, or the contents of your coworker’s resume, that’s considered plagiarism. However, if you’re plagiarizing something that is protected by a trademark or copyright , you could be fined, sued, charged, or even put in jail.

So, to prevent yourself from accidentally (or intentionally) plagiarizing, keep reading to learn about the examples of plagiarism and how to stop yourself from committing this morally questionable offense.

Examples of plagiarism 

The following plagiarism types are the most common yet super easy to avoid. Although many are specific to academic writing (e.g., essays and research papers), anything below is applicable to business professionals with writing-heavy job functions as well. 

1. Missing quotation marks and author attribution

Any time you use a quotation, whether it’s a couple of words, a few sentences, or a large block of text, you have to attribute the quote to the person who originally uttered (or wrote) the words you’re referencing. To do this, list the person by name and include quotation marks around any and all words belonging directly to the speaker/writer.

In the academic world, you’ll most likely be using MLA , APA, or CMS citation style guides for your classwork (unless in a specialized concentration), so make sure you know which one you’re supposed to use for your specific course.

In the professional world, simply referencing the person by name (first and last) and the work from which you are quoting will suffice. Otherwise, sticking with MLA format is always a safe choice.

2. Buying a paper from an essay writing website

Especially popular among college students facing strict deadlines for midterms and final exams that consist of an essay portion, essay writing websites might seem like a hero in disguise. These sites promise 100% original content within a certain timeframe (e.g., in 24 hours or three days, depending on how quickly you need your paper).

However, while this method might seem failsafe, many online essay-writing websites reuse essays that their essay writers had once created for someone (100% originally, as promised) and send you, the naive buyer, a copy of a previously-written paper about the topic you requested an essay for. 

Because you cannot guarantee that they have hand-crafted a brand new essay for you, you could potentially be accused of plagiarism if you turn it in and someone else had submitted it before you – even if it was at a school or institution far from yours. 

It’s not like you can go to your professor and make a claim that the paper isn’t plagiarized because you bought it brand new online. Then, not only are you a plagiarist, but you’re also a cheater. It’s not a good look.

3. Turning in someone else’s work as your own (even if they let you)

Even if you’re not a student anymore, you were at some point, meaning you definitely had friends who took a class before you did and vice versa. Many instructors stick with the same syllabus semester after semester, year after year. So much work goes into creating a syllabus that they don’t want to overhaul and create another one for the same class they’re teaching for the 12th time. 

Students are wise and know this from talking to each other. So if your friend took a class on the history of artificial intelligence in the fall semester of 2021, and you plan to take it in the spring semester of 2024, you’re already aware of the fact that there’s a 10-page final essay you’ll need to write. But you don’t like writing, and your friend got an A on their final essay, so you figure it’s been long enough that you can re-submit the paper with your name on it, and you’re good to go.

Well, not only do instructors have a pretty good memory, but they can also use plagiarism-checking websites to give them an extra layer of security in confirming the originality of your final paper.

Plus, if you get caught plagiarizing, you’ll definitely fail the paper, fail the class, and both you and your friend can be expelled for such an offense. But hey, those are the consequences of plagiarism.

4. Having somebody rewrite sections of your paper (or the whole thing)

Students who are struggling with starting or completing a paper will usually take their professor’s advice and seek help at their university’s writing center from a writing tutor. But a large number of students take the word help a bit too liberally and expect a writing tutor to, well, write their paper for them.

While writing tutors are beneficial resources for assisting in the completion of an assignment, finding more source material, or helping a writer with learning how to rework their content, tutors aren’t there to write or rewrite students’ papers.

If you ask a writing tutor to “reword” or “rephrase” a large chunk of a paper you’ve written, or ask them how they would say something with the expectation that they give you a word-for-word response that you can copy and use as your own words, that’s plagiarism.

Writing tutors should be used to enhance your own writing while helping you learn how to become a better writer. Don’t take advantage of them!

5. Using old work you previously wrote as “repurposed” content

Using an old paper you wrote for a class years ago, or an article you published on your former employer’s website and trying to pass it off as freshly written or “repurposed” content is considered self-plagiarism .

You’re probably thinking, but I can’t plagiarize myself! Well, actually, you can.

Self-plagiarism is pretty simple. If you use the exact same content you’ve previously written and try to pass it off as new or “repurposed” content, you’re self-plagiarizing. Be honest with your reader and provide them with a note indicating that this is not the first use of or publication of the content they’re reading.

And hey, if your writing is in an online format, you can even link back to your other content and grow your site traffic! 

6. Paraphrasing (without attribution)

To get around citing sources, people opt to paraphrase the content. However, there’s a fine line between paraphrasing something and usurping content that someone else wrote first. You might come across the most informational source about the topic you’re researching (and have to write about), and you think that they say what you need to say better than you ever could. So you decide to copy and paste directly from their website and change some words here and there, but keep the general idea of what they said intact.

Guess what? That’s still plagiarism.

Just because you add a few flowery words and switch the order of the text from the original source doesn’t mean you’ve created something original. To make sure you aren’t accidentally plagiarizing, give credit to the author of your original source or the website where your source material came from. You don’t have to use quotation marks because you aren’t directly quoting the source, but you should reference your source by name as a way to cite them.

7. Source misattribution

In the same way that not citing your source constitutes plagiarism, so does citing an incorrect source. Just because you read that one person said or wrote a famous quote you’ve heard a hundred times doesn’t mean that the person you heard it from actually said it first.

8. Common knowledge

Words and phrases like Abraham Lincoln’s “four score and seven years ago” or Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” are considered common knowledge. So yes, we all know that Lincoln gave The Gettysburg Address and that MLK Jr. gave the I Have a Dream speech ; however, you should still note the source (person) whose common words and phrases you’re using.

Simply noting “When MLK Jr. said he had a dream…” in your writing would be sufficient in this instance. Nobody’s going to confuse Lincoln or MLK Jr. with someone else, and everybody knows who they are.

How to check for plagiarism 

If you're on the receiving end of some fishy content, you may be wondering how to find out if plagiarism is involved. Here are some quick tips to keep in mind while you figure that out.

• Compare the usual quality of the writer's work.
• Utilize free plagiarism tools .
• Identify odd and dramatic changes in grammar, font, sentence structure, etc.
• Do a quick Google search.
• Look out for concepts above the level of the writer's understanding.
• Get familiar with websites commonly used for plagiarism.
• Learn more about the use of AI writing assistants .
• Invest in more comprehensive plagiarism checkers.

It's not easy to determine at first glance whether something is plagiarized or not. Plagiarism checking software save the day by automating the way you catch some wary writing.

To qualify for inclusion in the plagiarism checker software category, a product must:

• Allow users to upload documents or input live text
• Bring attention to content that is being flagged as potentially plagiarized 
• Identify the sources where the text may have been plagiarized from

* Below are the top five leading plagiarism checker platforms from G2’s Spring 2024 Grid® Report. Some reviews may be edited for clarity.

1. Grammarly Business

Grammarly Business is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps businesses expedite the writing process with tools like a grammar checker, plagiarism checker, citation generator, style guide, and more.

What users like best:

“I like that Grammarly provides accurate, thorough, and easy-to-understand grammar and spelling checks. It helps me to quickly identify and correct any potential errors in my writing. Additionally, it has a wide variety of helpful writing tools like punctuation checkers, synonym finders, and plagiarism detectors. Grammarly's intuitive user interface makes it easy to use, and its AI-driven technology ensures that the suggestions it makes are always reliable and up-to-date.”

- Grammarly Business Review , Eashan G .

What users dislike:

“An aspect that I've found less helpful is that sometimes it does not catch all errors in the document, which can be frustrating if I'm relying on the software to catch everything. Additionally, Grammarly Business does not have the capability to detect cultural and regional variations in the language. This means it may flag certain words or phrases that are perfectly fine to use in specific regions or cultures but not considered appropriate in others. Lastly, the price point can be quite expensive for small businesses or independent users like me, which can be a limitation for those who want to use it but do not have the budget for it.”

- Grammarly Business Review , Ivette V.

2. Turnitin

Turnitin specializes in prioritizing academic integrity in the education industry. Turnitin's most popular tool is state-of-the-art plagiarism detection which is especially helpful in online learning environments.

“I have used Turnitin for over 5 years for checking the similarity index of academic papers. The software is the coolest software for anti-plagiarism. It has a good interface that allows you to navigate easily. When you check a document for plagiarism, the software gives you a report and links to the sources of the document. It uses several colours to differentiate the sources of your paper. Its pricing is fair and flexible. It has two sections for checking the instructor version and the student version. I hope it is going to develop a feature for checking content generated by AI tools such as Moonbeam and ChatGPT.

- Turnitin Review , Lamar R.

“Like most technologies, it's not going to catch everything. Plus, some of the flagged assignments might be legitimate student work, so be sure to double-check, especially if multiple students were allowed to work together to create a thesis or topic sentences.”

- Turnitin Review , James T.

3. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is an all-in-one grammar checker, style editor, and plagiarism detector. It helps writers enhance their work by identifying errors, suggesting style improvements, and providing various writing metrics reports.

“I love how easy it was to integrate ProWritingAid into Word and Google Chrome. I use it all the time and don't write anything without it, from fiction novels to cover letters. The numerous features help with keeping my voice consistent and my words running smoothe.”

-  ProWritingAid Review , Sam G.

“Being an artificial intelligence, it can't replace the human eye entirely. Some of the suggestions or corrections are simply wrong, and the program won't always get the small nuances of what you've written. You still need your own judgment and knowledge for a good number of suggestions.”

-  ProWritingAid Review , Elli C.

4. PlagiarismCheck.org

PlagiarismCheck.org helps educators from K-12 and higher education identify potential plagiarism in their students' work. PlaigiarismCheck.org's detection tools help to identify paraphrasing, suspicious changes in sentence structure, grammar errors, and more. 

“I love this website! It is so helpful! I use it to check my academic papers for plagiarism every time I need to submit a paper, and it helps me feel more confident about my writing.”

- PlagiarismCheck.org Review , Shristi L.

“It's a little difficult to navigate, and there are some paywalls to get through. The price is kinda high, considering there are free versions. The site should try to monetize a different way”

- PlagiarismCheck.org Review , Kyle M.

Quetext offers a free plagiarism detection tool that is as easy to use as copy and paste. Users can download their Google Chrome extension to analyze their drafts and collect plagiarism scoring throughout the writing process.

“I like the reports and their overall plagiarism detector. I have tried to use other tools for plagiarism, but nothing came as close to Quetext. It was accurate and perfect. Really helpful, especially if you are writing a ton of documents on the internet.”

- Quetext Review , Tejas R.

“I think there is a disadvantage with Quetext where sometimes a content writer may write exact text without intention, so it may detect plagiarism. Its algorithm may mislead innovative content.”

- Quetext Review , Khursheed K.

Plagiarism is a serious issue in educational, professional, and creative fields. Below, you will find some frequently asked questions about plagiarism that address its types, strategies to avoid it, and the consequences.

1. What are the different types of plagiarism?

A - The common types of plagiarism are:

• Direct plagiarism: Copying text exactly without using quotation marks or giving attribution.
• Self-plagiarism: Making use of your own previously published work without acknowledgment.
• Mosaic plagiarism: Mixing someone else's phrases and ideas with your own without proper citation.
• Accidental plagiarism: Unintentionally failing to cite sources or misquoting due to negligence or ignorance.

2. How can you avoid plagiarism?

A - You can avoid plagiarism in a few sure-shot ways, such as:

• Always cite your sources according to the appropriate style guide.
• Use quotation marks for direct quotes.
• When paraphrasing, rephrase it in your own words and cite the source.
• Keep track of your sources during research.
• Consider using plagiarism-checking tools to scan your work.

3. What are the consequences of plagiarism?

A - The severity of consequences depends on the context and can range from:

• Academic penalties (failing a class)
• Professional disciplinary actions (termination)
• Legal repercussions (lawsuits)
• Damage to your reputation

4. What is accidental plagiarism?

A - Accidental plagiarism occurs when you unintentionally fail to cite sources properly or misunderstand how to paraphrase correctly. Learning proper citation practices is crucial to avoid this.

5. What is the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarism?

A - Paraphrasing includes rewording and rephrasing someone else's work in your own words while giving proper credit. Plagiarism, however, involves using someone else's work without proper attribution.

Put your mind at ease

Because detecting plagiarism with the naked eye isn’t always a foolproof solution, you might want a second opinion on determining the originality of a text. That's why automation is the way to go!

Grammarly is rated among the top plagiarism checkers, but is Grammarly premium worth it?  See for yourself.

This article was originally published in 2019. The content has been updated with new information.

Use plagiarism checker software to avoid accidental plagiarism or to detect some suspicious writing activity.

Rebecca Reynoso is the former Sr. Editor and Guest Post Program Manager at G2. She holds two degrees in English, a BA from the University of Illinois-Chicago and an MA from DePaul University. Prior to working in tech, Rebecca taught English composition at a few colleges and universities in Chicago. Outside of G2, Rebecca freelance edits sales blogs and writes tech content. She has been editing professionally since 2013 and is a member of the American Copy Editors Society (ACES).

Plagiarism means taking someone else's work or ideas and claiming they're yours. It happens in...

Plagiarism is an unethical use of content, yet people still do it.

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• Knowledge Base
• Examples of Plagiarism & Tips for Avoiding It

Examples of Plagiarism & Tips for Avoiding It

Published on November 1, 2021 by Tegan George . Revised on July 15, 2022.

Plagiarism means using someone else’s words or ideas without properly crediting the original author.

Some common examples of plagiarism include:

• Paraphrasing a source too closely
• Including a direct quote without quotation marks
• Copying elements of different sources and pasting them into a new document
• Leaving out an in-text citation
• Submitting a full text that is not your own

Table of contents

Paraphrasing plagiarism, verbatim plagiarism, patchwork plagiarism: combining multiple sources, common knowledge: when do i need a citation, real-life examples of plagiarism, frequently asked questions about plagiarism.

Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s ideas into your own words. In order to do so correctly, you must entirely rewrite the passage you are referencing without changing the meaning of the original text.

Every time you paraphrase, it’s important to cite the original source and avoid wording that is too similar to the original. Otherwise, you could be at risk of committing paraphrasing plagiarism .

Remember that paraphrasing doesn’t just mean switching out a few words for synonyms while retaining the original sentence structure. The author’s idea must be reformulated in a way that fits smoothly into your text.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Quoting means copying a brief passage from another text, enclosing it in quotation marks .

If you fail to include quotation marks or a citation, you’re committing verbatim plagiarism : copying someone’s exact words without acknowledgement. Even if you change a few of the words, it’s still plagiarism.

To quote correctly, introduce the quotation in your own words, make sure it’s enclosed in quotation marks, and include a citation showing where it comes from.

Patchwork plagiarism , also called mosaic plagiarism, involves copying elements of different sources and combining them to create a new text. It can include both directly copying and paraphrasing content without citation.

It can be challenging to incorporate several sources into your work at once, so be sure to double-check that you are citing each one correctly.

If you quote or paraphrase multiple sources in one sentence, it’s often best to cite each one separately, so that it’s clear what material comes from which source.

“Americans have always remembered the battle. What we often forget are the difficult decisions tribal leaders made afterward to ensure the safety of their people” (Van Heuvelen, 2020).

“Under skies darkened by smoke, gunfire and flying arrows, 210 men of the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry Unit led by Lt. Colonel George Custer confronted thousands of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors on June 25, 1876, near the Little Big Horn River in present-day Montana. The engagement was one in a series of battles and negotiations between Plains Indians and U.S. forces over control of Western territory, collectively known as the Sioux Wars” (McDermott, 2021). Example: Patchwork plagiarism For many Americans, the headdress is a well-known symbol of indigenous America indistinguishable from the narrative of the “wild west and cowboys and Indians.” One of the most famous examples of the cowboys versus Indians narrative is the Battle of Little Bighorn.

On June 25, 1876, 210 men of the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry Unit led by Lt. Colonel George Custer confronted thousands of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors . Custer and his men were handily defeated, and Americans have always remembered the battle as “Custer’s Last Stand.” What is often forgotten is the difficult decisions tribal leaders made afterward to ensure the safety of their people . Example: Correctly citing multiple sources The headdress is a well-known symbol of indigenous America, forming part of “the narrative of the wild west and cowboys and Indians” (Van Heuvelen, 2020). One of the most famous examples of this narrative is the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Common knowledge refers to information you can reasonably expect the average reader to accept without proof.

For this kind of information, you don’t need a citation. For example, you won’t be accused of plagiarism for failing to cite your sources when you mention Paris is the capital city of France.

In order to be considered common knowledge, your statement must be widely known, undisputed, and easily verified. It also generally cannot be attributed to a specific person or paper. When in doubt, add a citation.

Plagiarism is most commonly discussed in the context of academia, but it’s a relevant concern across all sorts of different industries, from pop music to politics.

• Plagiarism in academia
• Plagiarism in art
• Plagiarism in politics
• Plagiarism in music

In 2006, the Brookings Institute accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having plagiarized 80% of his economics dissertation from a paper published by the University of Pittsburgh a few decades earlier.

Dissertation plagiarism committed by other famous politicians, such as former Senator John Walsh, former German Defense Secretary Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, and former Hungarian President Pal Schmitt, led to their resignations and their degrees being revoked.

Source: CNN Reusing or copying existing materials has been a big part of many types of art. However, it is still possible to plagiarize art.

In 1966, famous Pop Art artist Andy Warhol was sued by photographer Patricia Caulfield, who claimed unauthorized use of one of her photographs. Warhol had seen her photo of hibiscus flowers in the 1964 issue of Modern Photography  and used it for his silkscreen work Flowers .

While Warhol’s team argued that this was “fair use,” a judge determined that Warhol had, in fact, plagiarized the photo. This led to enduring reputation costs and a large financial settlement.

Source: Garden Collage Many political speeches revolve around similar themes, but while it is natural to draw inspiration from previous speeches, paraphrasing them too closely is considered plagiarism.

In 2016, a speech Melania Trump gave at the Republican National Convention was found to have copied several paragraphs almost verbatim from a speech Michelle Obama gave at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

While her staff claimed that she had incorporated “fragments of others’ speeches that reflected her own thinking,” she was widely considered to have plagiarized.

Joe Biden was found to have committed similar plagiarism in a speech he gave during the 1988 presidential campaign, paraphrasing a speech by Welsh politician Neil Kinnock too closely.

Source: CNN While technically no one owns a chord progression or particular combination of sounds, plagiarism in the music industry is a common accusation.

In 2018, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 2013 hit song “Blurred Lines,” by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, infringed on the copyright of the song “Got to Give it Up,” by the late Marvin Gaye. The Gaye family was awarded over $5 million in damages as well as 50% of the royalties moving forward.

This sets a precedent that new music must be different in both style and substance from previously copyrighted songs. Other hit artists, such as Sam Smith, George Harrison, and Olivia Rodrigo, have faced similar consequences.

Plagiarism means presenting someone else’s work as your own without giving proper credit to the original author. In academic writing, plagiarism involves using words, ideas, or information from a source without including a citation .

Plagiarism can have serious consequences , even when it’s done accidentally. To avoid plagiarism, it’s important to keep track of your sources and cite them correctly.

Some examples of plagiarism include:

• Copying and pasting a Wikipedia article into the body of an assignment
• Quoting a source without including a citation
• Not paraphrasing a source properly, such as maintaining wording too close to the original
• Forgetting to cite the source of an idea

The most surefire way to avoid plagiarism is to always cite your sources . When in doubt, cite!

If you’re concerned about plagiarism, consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission. Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.

Common knowledge does not need to be cited. However, you should be extra careful when deciding what counts as common knowledge.

Common knowledge encompasses information that the average educated reader would accept as true without needing the extra validation of a source or citation.

Common knowledge should be widely known, undisputed and easily verified. When in doubt, always cite your sources.

Paraphrasing without crediting the original author is a form of plagiarism , because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

However, paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you correctly cite the source . This means including an in-text citation and a full reference, formatted according to your required citation style .

As well as citing, make sure that any paraphrased text is completely rewritten in your own words.

Yes, reusing your own work without acknowledgment is considered self-plagiarism . This can range from re-submitting an entire assignment to reusing passages or data from something you’ve turned in previously without citing them.

Self-plagiarism often has the same consequences as other types of plagiarism . If you want to reuse content you wrote in the past, make sure to check your university’s policy or consult your professor.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

George, T. (2022, July 15). Examples of Plagiarism & Tips for Avoiding It. Scribbr. Retrieved August 5, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/plagiarism/examples-of-plagiarism/

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• NEWS FEATURE
• 30 July 2024

AI is complicating plagiarism. How should scientists respond?

• Diana Kwon 0

Diana Kwon is a freelance science journalist based in Berlin.

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Illustration by Piotr Kowalczyk

From accusations that led Harvard University’s president to resign in January , to revelations in February of plagiarized text in peer-review reports , the academic world has been roiled by cases of plagiarism this year.

But a bigger problem looms in scholarly writing. The rapid uptake of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools — which create text in response to prompts — has raised questions about whether this constitutes plagiarism and under what circumstances it should be allowed. “There’s a whole spectrum of AI use, from completely human-written to completely AI-written — and in the middle, there’s this vast wasteland of confusion,” says Jonathan Bailey, a copyright and plagiarism consultant based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, which are based on algorithms known as large language models (LLMs), can save time, improve clarity and reduce language barriers. Many researchers now argue that they are permissible in some circumstances and that their use should be fully disclosed.

But such tools complicate an already fraught debate around the improper use of others’ work. LLMs are trained to generate text by digesting vast amounts of previously published writing. As a result, their use could result in something akin to plagiarism — if a researcher passes off the work of a machine as their own, for instance, or if a machine generates text that is very close to a person’s work without attributing the source. The tools can also be used to disguise deliberately plagiarized text, and any use of them is hard to spot. “Defining what we actually mean by academic dishonesty or plagiarism, and where the boundaries are, is going to be very, very difficult,” says Pete Cotton, an ecologist at the University of Plymouth, UK.

In a 2023 survey of 1,600 researchers , 68% of respondents said that AI will make plagiarism easier and harder to detect. “Everybody’s worried about everybody else using these systems, and they’re worried about themselves not using them when they should,” says Debora Weber-Wulff, a plagiarism specialist at the University of Applied Sciences Berlin. “Everybody’s kind of in a tizzy about this.”

Plagiarism meets AI

Plagiarism, which the US Office of Research Integrity defines as “the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit”, is a familiar problem. A 2015 study estimated that 1.7% of scientists had admitted to plagiarism and that 30% knew colleagues who had committed it 1 .

LLMs could make things worse. Intentional plagiarism of human-written text can easily be disguised if someone asks an LLM to paraphrase the wording first. The tools can be prompted to paraphrase in sophisticated ways, such as in the style of an academic journal, says Muhammad Abdul-Mageed, a computer scientist and linguist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

A central question is whether using unattributed content written entirely by a machine — rather than by a human — counts as plagiarism. Not necessarily, say many researchers. For example, the European Network for Academic Integrity, which includes universities and individuals, defines the prohibited or undeclared use of AI tools for writing as “unauthorized content generation” rather than as plagiarism as such 2 . “Plagiarism, for me, would have things that are attributable to another, identifiable person,” says Weber-Wulff. Although there have been instances of generative AI producing text that looks almost identical to existing, human-written content, it is usually not close enough to be considered plagiarism, she adds.

Plagiarism in peer-review reports could be the ‘tip of the iceberg’

However, some people argue that generative AI tools are infringing copyright. Both plagiarism and copyright infringement are the improper use of someone else’s work, and whereas plagiarism is a breach of academic ethics, unauthorized use of copyrighted work can be a breach of the law. “These AI systems are built on the work of millions or hundreds of millions of people,” says Rada Mihalcea, a computer scientist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Some media companies and authors have protested against what they see as copyright breaches by AI. In December 2023, The New York Times launched a copyright lawsuit against the tech giant Microsoft and OpenAI, the US company behind the LLM GPT-4, which powers the chatbot ChatGPT. The lawsuit claims that the two firms copied and used millions of the newspaper’s articles to train LLMs, which now compete with the publication’s content. The lawsuit includes instances in which prompts caused GPT-4 to reproduce several paragraphs of the newspaper’s articles almost word for word.

In February, OpenAI filed a motion in federal court to dismiss parts of the lawsuit, arguing that “ChatGPT is not in any way a substitute for a subscription” to The New York Times . A spokesperson for Microsoft says that “lawfully developed AI-powered tools should be allowed to advance responsibly”, and “they are also not a substitute for the vital role that journalists play”.

If a court rules that training an AI on text without permission is indeed copyright infringement, “that’s going to be a huge shake up for AI companies”, says Bailey. Without extensive training sets, tools such as ChatGPT “can’t exist”, he says.

AI explosion

Whether it’s called plagiarism or not, the use of AI in academic writing has exploded since ChatGPT was released in November 2022.

In a preprint updated in July 3 , researchers estimated that at least 10% of abstracts in biomedical papers in the first six months of 2024 had used LLMs for writing — equivalent to 150,000 papers per year. The authors, led by data scientist Dmitry Kobak at the University of Tübingen in Germany, analysed 14 million abstracts in the academic database PubMed that had been published between 2010 and June 2024. They showed that the arrival of LLMs was associated with the increased use of stylistic words — such as ‘delves’, ‘showcasing’ and ‘underscores’ — and then used these unusual word patterns to estimate the proportion of abstracts that had been processed using AI (see ‘AI in academic papers’). “The appearance of LLM-based writing assistants has had an unprecedented impact in the scientific literature,” they wrote.

Source: Ref. 3

Kobak and his colleagues found that papers from countries including China and South Korea showed signs of heavier LLM use than did those from countries where English is the dominant language. However, says Kobak, authors in this latter group of countries might be using these tools just as often, but in ways that are more difficult to spot. Use of LLMs “will certainly continue to increase”, Kobak predicts, and will “probably get harder to detect”.

The undisclosed use of software in academic writing is not new. Since 2015, Guillaume Cabanac, a computer scientist at the University of Toulouse, France, and his colleagues have been uncovering gibberish papers made by software called SCIgen, and ones containing ‘ tortured phrases ’ that were created by automated software that translates or paraphrases text. “Even before generative AI, people had tools to fly under the radar,” Cabanac says.

And some use of AI in academic writing has value. Researchers say that it can make text and concepts clearer, reduce language barriers and free up time for experiments and thought. Hend Al-Khalifa, an information-technology researcher at King Saud University in Riyadh, says that before generative AI tools became available, many of her colleagues for whom English is a second language would struggle to write papers. “Now, they are focusing on the research and removing the hassle of writing with these tools,” she says.

But confusion reigns about when the use of AI constitutes plagiarism or contravenes ethics. Soheil Feizi, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park, says that using LLMs to paraphrase content from existing papers is clearly plagiarism. But using an LLM to help express ideas — either by generating text based on a detailed prompt, or by editing a draft — should not be penalized if it is done transparently. “We should allow people to leverage large language models to be able to express their ideas effortlessly and in a clearer manner,” Feizi says.

Many journals now have policies that allow some level of LLM use. After originally banning text generated by ChatGPT, Science updated its policy in November 2023 to say that use of AI technologies in writing a manuscript should be disclosed in full — including the system and prompts used. Authors are accountable for accuracy and “ensuring that there is no plagiarism”, it says. Nature , too, says authors of research manuscripts should use the methods section to document any LLM use . ( Nature ’s news and features team is editorially independent of its journals team.)

‘Obviously ChatGPT’ — how reviewers accused me of scientific fraud

An analysis of 100 large academic publishers and 100 highly ranked journals found that by October 2023, 24% of publishers and 87% of journals had guidelines on the use of generative AI 4 . Almost all of those that provided guidance said that an AI tool could not be included as an author, but policies differed on the types of AI use allowed and the level of disclosure required. Clearer guidelines on AI use in academic writing are urgently needed, says Weber-Wulff.

For now, the rampant use of LLMs for writing scientific papers is curbed by their limitations, says Abdul-Mageed. Users need to create detailed prompts describing the audience, the style of language and the subfield of research. “It’s actually very difficult for a language model to give you exactly what you want,” he says.

But developers are building applications that will make it easier for researchers to generate specialized scientific content, says Abdul-Mageed. Rather than having to write a detailed prompt, a user could in future simply pick from a drop-down menu of options and push a button to produce an entire paper from scratch, he says.

Detective work

The rapid adoption of LLMs to write text has been accompanied by a flurry of tools that aim to detect it. Although many boast high rates of accuracy — more than 90%, in some cases — research has suggested that most do not live up to their claims. In a study published last December 5 , Weber-Wulff and her colleagues assessed 14 AI-detection tools that are widely used in academia. Only 5 accurately identified 70% or more of texts as AI- or human-written, and none scored above 80%.

The detectors’ accuracy dropped below 50%, on average, when spotting AI-generated text that someone had lightly edited by replacing synonyms and reordering sentences. Such text is “almost undetectable by current tools”, the authors wrote. Other studies have shown that asking an AI to paraphrase text multiple times drastically reduces the accuracy of the detectors 6 .

AI and science: what 1,600 researchers think

There are other problems with AI detectors. One study showed that they are more likely to misclassify English writing as AI-generated if it was penned by people for whom English is not a first language 7 . Feizi says the detectors cannot reliably distinguish between text written entirely by AI and cases in which an author used AI-based services that polish text by helping with grammar and sentence clarity. “Differentiating between these cases would be quite difficult and unreliable — and could lead to a huge rate of false positives,” he says. Being falsely accused of using AI, he adds, can be “quite damaging to the reputation of those scholars or students”.

The boundary between legitimate and illegitimate use of AI is likely to blur further. In March 2023, Microsoft started to incorporate generative AI tools into its applications, including Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. Some versions of its AI assistant, called Copilot, can draft or edit content. In June, Google also began integrating its generative AI model, Gemini, into tools such as Docs and Gmail.

“AI is becoming so embedded in everything we use, I think it’ll become increasingly difficult to know whether something you’ve done has been influenced by AI,” says Debby Cotton, a specialist in higher education at Plymouth Marjon University, UK. “I think it’ll carry on evolving more rapidly than we can keep pace with.”

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