Contents
What Is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the use of another person's words, ideas, arguments, data, or creative work without appropriate acknowledgement — presenting it, whether intentionally or inadvertently, as your own. Most university academic integrity policies define it as including:
- Copying text verbatim without quotation marks and a citation
- Paraphrasing another author's ideas without attribution
- Using data, statistics, or figures from a source without citing it
- Reusing your own previously submitted work without disclosure (self-plagiarism)
- Submitting work written by another person as your own
Academic integrity policies typically do not distinguish between deliberate and inadvertent plagiarism when it comes to penalties. Claiming you "didn't know" is not a defence. Understanding citation requirements is treated as a core academic skill.
Types of Plagiarism
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verbatim plagiarism | Copying exact words without quotation marks or citation | Pasting sentences from a source directly into your essay |
| Mosaic / patchwriting | Mixing copied phrases with paraphrase, still without citation | Replacing some words in a passage but keeping the sentence structure |
| Inadequate paraphrase | Changing a few words but keeping the structure and ideas without attribution | "The findings indicate" → "The results show" with no citation |
| Idea theft | Using another author's argument or framework without credit, even when rewording completely | Presenting Foucault's theory of power as your own insight |
| Self-plagiarism | Resubmitting your own previous work without disclosure | Submitting the same essay to two different modules |
| Ghost-writing | Submitting work written by someone else as your own | Buying an essay from a contract cheating service |
Paraphrase vs. Patchwriting
A genuine paraphrase restates the author's idea in entirely your own words and sentence structure, followed by a citation. Patchwriting — the most common form of unintentional plagiarism — substitutes a few synonyms while preserving the original's syntax.
Patchwriting (plagiarism)
Original: "Sleep loss affects virtually every physiological system in the body."
Patchwriting: Sleep deficiency impacts almost every biological system in the human body. (Walker, 2017)
Genuine Paraphrase
No bodily system is immune to the effects of insufficient sleep, from cardiovascular function to hormone regulation and immune response (Walker, 2017).
The test: could you reconstruct this sentence without looking at the original? If you are essentially following the original's word-for-word choices, the paraphrase is insufficient. A true paraphrase demonstrates that you have understood the idea well enough to express it in your own terms.
When to Quote, When to Paraphrase
| Use a direct quotation when… | Use a paraphrase when… |
|---|---|
| The exact wording is significant (legal text, poetry, a famous formulation) | The idea matters more than the specific phrasing |
| You are analysing the language itself | You are synthesising information from multiple sources |
| The author expresses something with unusual precision or power | The original is wordy or technical and your rephrasing aids clarity |
A high density of direct quotations suggests you are relying on sources to write your essay for you, rather than demonstrating your own analytical voice. Most disciplines expect the majority of source material to appear as properly integrated paraphrase, with direct quotations reserved for moments where the exact wording is analytically significant.
How Citation Protects You
A correct citation does four things simultaneously:
Identifies the source
Gives the reader the full information needed to locate and verify the original source.
Distinguishes your voice
Makes clear where your analysis ends and your source begins — protecting your own original contribution from appearing derivative.
Demonstrates breadth of reading
Shows the examiner that your argument is grounded in the relevant literature.
Constitutes intellectual honesty
Acknowledges the intellectual debt owed to scholars whose work you are building on.
Self-Plagiarism
Self-plagiarism (also called duplicate submission or contract recycling) means resubmitting substantially the same work to meet two different academic requirements without disclosure and permission. It is treated as a serious academic offence at most UK and US universities because it misrepresents the amount of original work produced for a given assessment.
Some limited reuse of your own previously written material is permitted — for example, incorporating background text from a dissertation proposal into the full dissertation — but this must be disclosed to your supervisor. When in doubt, ask.
The Common Knowledge Exception
Facts that are genuinely common knowledge — widely known, undisputed, and not attributable to a specific source — do not need to be cited. Examples: "The French Revolution began in 1789," "DNA is a double helix," "Shakespeare was an Elizabethan playwright."
The threshold for "common knowledge" in academic writing is high. If the fact would strike a reader as surprising, if it depends on a specific study or data set, or if it is contested in the literature, it needs a citation regardless of how widely reported it has become.
What Detection Software Actually Finds
Tools such as Turnitin and iThenticate compare submitted text against vast databases of web content, published journals, and previously submitted student work. They produce a similarity score — but the score is not a plagiarism score.
- A high similarity score may reflect extensive (correctly cited) quotation, a highly formulaic assignment type, or common technical terminology — not plagiarism.
- A low similarity score does not mean no plagiarism — thoroughly paraphrased ideas without citation will not be flagged.
- Detection software cannot identify idea theft, contract cheating (where someone else wrote the paper), or sources not held in the database.
AI Tools and Academic Integrity
The use of AI writing tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.) in assessed work falls under academic integrity policies that vary by institution and module. The general principles are:
- Submitting AI-generated text as your own work without disclosure is treated as academic misconduct at most institutions.
- Where AI use is permitted (e.g., for brainstorming, grammar checking, outline generation), disclosure requirements still apply — check your module handbook.
- AI-generated citations and references are frequently incorrect or fabricated ("hallucinated"). Never include an AI-generated reference without verifying it independently against the actual source.
- The epistemic responsibility for every claim in your essay remains yours, regardless of what tools you used to draft it.
The cost of citing something that did not strictly need a citation is minimal. The cost of not citing something that required one is a potential academic misconduct finding. If you are unsure whether something needs a citation, include one.