Reducing your plagiarism percentage: How to ensure your coursework is free from plagiarism

When you submit a piece of coursework, it will be checked to ensure you have not plagiarised (copied directly from someone else’s work). Your paper will be analysed and checked against previous student papers, academic journals, ebooks, articles and other public sources. You will then be given an originality score (marked as a percentage) which shows how similar your paper is to other work.

Some universities have specific rules about this I.e no more than 10%.  You may be penalised if your score is too high or you face action depending on your university’s policies. However, some lecturers may be more lenient when it comes to your originality score.

Here are a few tips for reducing your plagiarism percentage.

Make sure quotes are referenced properly

 If you use quotes in your essay make sure they are referenced properly by putting quotation marks before and after. After each quote, there should be a citation to explain who the quote is from. 

For example: 

“Quotes should always be referenced properly using quotation marks” (Smith, 2021). 

After each quote, give your own opinion about what the author means and how it relates to your essay. 

Paraphrase where possible 

Paraphrasing means to rephrase a chunk of text so that it uses your own words but still has the same meaning as the original. Remember, even if you paraphrase you still need to provide a reference if you are using another author’s ideas or research. Just make sure your text is too similar to the original.

Don’t spend too much time reading example essays/coursework 

Whilst reading examples of essays and coursework can give you a basic idea of what to write in your own assignment, do not spend too much time reading other student’s work. This increases your temptation to copy. For that reason, some lecturers do not provide examples of previous work and if they do it will probably be on a different topic.

Remember, when you submit your essay it will be compared with previously submitted work from students that when it is being checked for plagiarism. So any copying will be spotted. Plus, just because you have access to a prior student’s work does not necessarily mean they received a good grade. You may end up using work that actually is of no real use to you.

Check your originality percentage in advance 

Usually, you can check your originality percentage in advance before submitting a draft of your essay before the final copy. However, be sure to check as sadly some courses do not give students this opportunity. If possible try to upload a draft at least the day before the final submission date so you have plenty of time to make any changes if you need to. Remember, it could take a couple of hours to receive your plagiarism report. 

Don’t copy chunks of text 

At the risk of stating the obvious do not copy large chunks of text, even if it’s only a few sentences. This will definitely bump up your plagiarism percentage.