How to Avoid Plagiarism
Know what counts as plagiarism — including paraphrasing and AI misuse — and how to cite your way past it.
Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work — words, ideas, code, data or structure — as your own. It is the academic offence with the least tolerance: it can be accidental and still cost you the assignment, the module, or in repeated cases the course.
What actually counts as plagiarism
Copying a passage verbatim without quotation marks and a citation. Paraphrasing someone's argument so closely that only the words changed. Reusing your own previously submitted work without permission (self-plagiarism). Buying or commissioning an assignment written by someone else. And in 2026, submitting AI-generated text as your own work — most universities now treat that as a form of academic misconduct too.
Paraphrasing the right way
The safe paraphrasing loop is: read the source, close it, write the idea in your own words from memory, then check that your version changes both vocabulary and sentence structure. Even a perfect paraphrase needs a citation, because the idea is still the author's.
Short exact phrases and definitions belong in quotation marks. Anything longer than a sentence or two should be paraphrased or quoted sparingly — your assignment should be mostly your own analysis, not a patchwork of sources.
Build the habit, not just the fear
The simplest antidote is a running notes system: whenever you note something from a source, write the citation next to it immediately, in the referencing style your brief requires, so no orphaned quote ever reaches your draft. Run an originality check on your own draft before you submit, and cite the moment you are unsure rather than after.
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The full guide on the original site