is using a paraphrasing tool considered plagiarism

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Does Paraphrasing With A Tool Count As Plagiarism?

October 12, 2022 at 3:48 am May 11, 2024 at 7:19 am

Paraphrasing is one of the common elements of writing good content. So, does it count as plagiarism?

Content is king, as said by Bill Gates over 26 years ago. It’s proven right today in every aspect, as 60% of marketers focus on creating at least one piece of content every day. However, creating good quality content is a challenge in Data Science Bootcamp , and that’s when a lot of writers employ paraphrasing tools.

But, does the paraphrasing tool commit plagiarism by rephrasing another author’s content? Moreover, what are the ground rules for using such a tool? And, how does it affect students or academic writers besides SEO writers?

Let’s find the answer to all of these.

Defining Plagiarism

Plagiarism is when a person copies another author’s work and claims that it is their own. This can be done in many different ways, including:

Copying words from a source and putting them into the text without giving credit to the original author
Copying ideas from a source without giving credit to the original author
Presenting an idea as if it was your own but not giving credit to the original author
Using someone else’s work without permission and claiming that you created it

While there are various types of plagiarism, which we’ll be discussing in a bit, all of them are equally unethical and wrong. Whether in an academic setting or a professional one, this is a practice that is frowned upon.

The cases caught with plagiarism are usually served with severe penalties, such as expulsion from the academies or getting fired from a job. However, the harms of plagiarism can exceed far beyond that, and some cases include:

Writer’s lost credibility
Reduction of academic grades
Demotion or relegation in a professional setting (getting fired in worst-case scenarios)
Brand’s tarnished reputation

These are some of the most common pitfalls of plagiarism for any writer.

4 Main Plagiarism Types

Plagiarism is a problem, and make no mistake, the factors mentioned above can also count in on accidental or unintentional plagiarism. That’s why it’s important to understand the four major types of plagiarism, which are:

Mosaic Plagiarism

Mosaic plagiarism is a term that has been coined by the writer and researcher Dr. Rebecca Moore Howard. It is a form of plagiarism where an article or book is constructed from multiple sources without attributing them to the original author.

Since it’s hard to detect, it’s also considered the most unethical type. The construction of mosaic plagiarism can be done in one of three ways:

The author takes passages from different sources, pastes them together, and rewrites them to create their own work
The author copies and pastes passages into a word processor document, create a new title for the document, and publishes it under his or her name as if it were original content
The author copy-pastes passages from different sources into a word processor document and publishes it under his or her name
Direct Plagiarism

Some people copy content from other sources and then publish it as their own. This is called “direct plagiarism.” Direct plagiarism is a serious offense that can result in a legal action but harms the original author’s reputation. It can also lead to a loss of trust from readers, which is an important part of marketing for any business.

Accidental Plagiarism

Accidental plagiarism is a common problem that many writers face without even intending to duplicate content. It is possible to accidentally plagiarize even without meaning to do so. How is that? For instance, by forgetting to cite a source or by using an online tool that automatically generates content.

Source-Based Plagiarism

Source-based plagiarism is a form of plagiarism that occurs when a writer fails to cite the source of their work. Or if they cite a source that doesn’t exist. In order to avoid this type of plagiarism, it is important for writers to be aware of the potential pitfalls and to use reliable sources.

What Is A Paraphrasing Tool? How Does it Work?

A paraphrasing tool is a computer program that automatically paraphrases text. The program analyzes the original text and replaces words with synonyms to generate a new text. It’s based on AI algorithms that allow users to conduct these actions within seconds.

If you were, to sum up how a paraphrasing tool works, then it’d look like this:

NLP reads the content and converts it for the machine
AI scans and analyzes the text
Then AI picks the best synonyms and alternative terms
The tool replaces said terms with picked synonyms
All this occurs within a mere seconds

Now, as opposed to manually rephrasing, a paraphrasing tool does it quickly and conveniently. That’s why this type of software is often used by:

Bloggers who want to generate more content very quickly
SEO specialists who want to improve the quality of their articles
People/writers who need assistance with their writing skills

Since it’s also commonly available today, it’s becoming more and more popular within writing communities of all kinds around the globe.

The simple answer is no, it’s not plagiarism if you do it right. However, if you do it wrong, then a lot can go left and cause plagiarism in your text. In order to avoid that, it’s imperative that you focus on writing original text with the assistance of a paraphrasing tool.

So, what are the pillars of using paraphrasers without committing to plagiarism? Here are three main things you need:

The Intention Should Be Right

The first thing that counts as plagiarism is the intention. If the writer intended to reuse another author’s work to save time or effort without giving them their due credit, then it’s plagiarism. Granted, plagiarism can be unintentional too.

However, plagiarism’s most unethical shape is the one where it’s intended to be that way. Therefore, the writer should always use a paraphrasing tool to avoid plagiarism, not cause it.

Paraphrasing Should Be Thorough

One of the most common problems writers face when paraphrasing is the lack of it. In other words, not paraphrasing thoroughly is what commonly causes plagiarism. How could they avoid that? By paraphrasing all the way through.

If your content remains the same as the original one, then plagiarism will remain. That’s why, to avoid it effectively, it’s imperative to use a tool that thoroughly rewrites the original text and avoids any similarities with the original.

The Citation Should Be There

The final nail is to cite the original author after paraphrasing. Remember, plagiarism is caused by not giving the original writer their due credit. Therefore, you need to make sure you cite properly after rephrasing.

So, how do you do that? By hyperlinking the text with the link to the original blog/website. Or, you can use MLA or APA styles to cite the original author.

How Should You Use A Paraphrasing Tool To Avoid Plagiarism?

Using a paraphrasing tool to avoid plagiarism sounds good, but you must ensure you’re doing it properly. So, here’s a four-step procedure you should use to avoid plagiarism every time you use a paraphrasing tool.

Pick A Paraphraser

The first step is to pick a good paraphrasing tool, and while we’ll be suggesting three such tools later, you need to look for something that offers:

Various content tones
At least a 500-word count limit
The natural tone of rephrased content
Quick and convenient usage

If a paraphrasing tool has these traits, then go for it.

Choose A Content Tone

Once you pick a tool, the next step is to paste or upload your content into the tool’s editor. After that, you’ll have to pick a content tone. Most good tools would offer something along the lines of:

While some tools don’t have these options, you shouldn’t worry because such tools know what’s best for your type of text.

Rewrite Content

The next step is to let the paraphrasing tool rewrite your content. This process takes up a few seconds, depending on the abilities of the tool you pick. However, most capable tools would take around a minute or two to rewrite around 400-500 words.

Cite The Source

The final step is to avoid plagiarism effectively by citing the source. As mentioned before, you can try various ways of citation, but using the MLA or APA system is the best way to ensure the original author gets their due credit.

3 Recommended Paraphrasing Tools in 2022

Now that the process is out of the way let’s talk about the tools. Bearing in mind all the qualities we mentioned before, we picked the three best paraphrasing tools you can use in 2022. Here they are:

Paraphrasingtool by Prepostseo

PrePostSEO’s paraphrasing tool is one of the common occurrences in Google search results for such tools. And there’s a good reason behind that, as it’s perhaps the best paraphrasing tool available today.

You cannot ask for more from a paraphrasing tool with a good UI design and paraphrasing capabilities. Because, in theory, this is the complete paraphraser that every writer needs.

1000-word limit
Four content tones
Supports 17 languages
Paraphrase Online by Editpad

Editpad is new to the game, but the paraphrasing tool is becoming one of the best available today. Featuring three different content tones and outstanding abilities to paraphrase online your text, it’s one of the best options you have.

On top of that, it can rewrite texts without causing unnatural or robotic tones. Which makes it an ideal companion for any writer.

1000+ word limit
Three content tones
Various supported languages
Quick and convenient
Paraphraser.io

Paraphraser.io is another leading name in paraphrasing , as it’s one of the favorites among writers. Why is it used on a wide scale? Because it has all the key ingredients to make a good paraphrasing tool.

From two more-than-suitable content tones to plagiarism removing capabilities, it’s everything a writer needs to avoid plagiarism.

500-word limit
Two content tones (three if premium)
Supports 13 languages
Exceedingly quicker than most paraphrasers

Understanding how to use a paraphrasing tool requires you to understand the basics of it. Most of which we’ve covered in this article, as it explains just how you should approach paraphrasing. Therefore, to sum it all up, use a good tool and make sure you cite the original author to avoid plagiarism.

A Guide to Plagiarism and Paraphrasing

A woman smiles while looking at a laptop

According to the joint research efforts of Dr. Donald McCabe and the International Center for Academic Integrity , nearly 30% of university students admit to having cheated in some way on an exam.

Understanding how and when to cite sources is a critical skill for students to learn. Whether you borrow someone’s ideas from a textbook, blog post, or academic journal, you must give proper credit while representing the source’s ideas fairly and coherently.

This guide covers:

Paraphrasing
Plagiarism checkers, citation managers, and writing tools

The Purdue Global Writing Center defines plagiarism as “using another's words, ideas, results, or images without giving appropriate credit to that person, therefore, giving the impression that it is your own work.”

Types of Plagiarism

University of Oxford notes eight common forms of plagiarism:

Verbatim plagiarism: Copying someone else’s work word for word.
Cutting and pasting from web pages without clear acknowledgement: Pulling information off the internet without referencing it and without including it in the bibliography.
Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing so closely so that the copy is almost an exact match to the original.
Collusion: In group projects, or projects in which you received help, failing to properly attribute the assistance or failure to follow the project’s rules.
Inaccurate citation: Failing to cite correctly, according to the conventions of your discipline.
Failure to acknowledge assistance: Failing to clearly acknowledge all assistance that has contributed to your work (ordinary proofreading and help from a tutor or supervisor is excepted).
Use of material written by professional agencies or other people: Using material that was written by a professional agency or another person, even if you have the consent of the person who wrote it.
Auto-plagiarism (also known as self-plagiarism): Reusing work that you’ve previously submitted or published; presenting that information as new when you’ve already gotten credit for the work.

A new concern revolves around AI and copying directly from chat, composition, and visual tools. Using prompts to generate content for assignments and passing it off as your own contribution is considered plagiarism. Various organizations use AI software to check for submissions generated by a chatbot.

Also, keep in mind that AI tools may produce inaccurate and unreliable information. While there may be valid use cases for informal AI-generated brainstorming, this is a complex and evolving topic. Be sure to verify the policy expressed by your school, professors, or professional organizations for recent developments.

It’s important to note that plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. Unintentional plagiarism occurs when a student unknowingly cites a source inaccurately or improperly. Intentional plagiarism, on the other hand, is when a student chooses not to cite a source or tries to pass off someone else’s ideas as their own.

Consequences of Plagiarism

The consequences of plagiarism vary by institution, but it could get you expelled or dropped from a course. In less severe instances, plagiarism — both intentional and unintentional — may result in a grade penalty, course failure, or suspension. Beyond the academic consequences, plagiarism also tarnishes your reputation and minimizes your integrity. Whether you’re in school or the working world, plagiarism is not a good look.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

The key to avoiding plagiarism is learning how to incorporate research into your writing. According to the Purdue Global Writing Center , you can do this in the following ways:

Quoting: If you don’t want to alter a source, use quotation marks to enclose all verbatim phrases.
Summarizing: If you find multiple relevant points in a lengthy text, simplify them into your own condensed synopsis.
Paraphrasing: If you want to use a source’s information, restate it in your own words.

Whether you’re quoting, summarizing, or paraphrasing, don’t forget to cite all sources.

What Is Paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is using your own words to convey the meaning of an excerpt. It shows your reader that you did your research and understand the content. While students may understand that they need to cite sources, many struggle with paraphrasing the ideas of others into their own words. However, like many aspects of writing, effective paraphrasing is a skill developed over time.

How to Approach Paraphrasing

The goal of paraphrasing is to translate the original work into your own wording and sentence structure. The best way to approach this is to focus on the meaning of the text, forcing you to interact with its purpose and context.

Paraphrasing Tips

A good way to judge your understanding of material is to see if you can explain it to someone else. Once you have this level of understanding, it’s easier to create effective paraphrases — changing the language and structure of a passage becomes more manageable.

Here are some tips to help you paraphrase:

Reread the passage until you fully understand its meaning.
Write your own summary of the passage without referencing the original.
Check that your summary accurately captures the context of the original passage.
Document the source information following your summary, whether it’s an endnote or footnote.

Remember that you still need to cite your paraphrases, but your follow-up analysis and discussion points belong to you.

What Requires Citation?

Any time you use information that isn’t common knowledge or you didn’t come up with yourself, you must cite it. The following requires citation, usually through in-text citation or a reference list entry:

Quotes: If you are quoting the actual words someone said, put the words in quotation marks and cite the source.
Information and ideas: If you obtain ideas or information from somewhere else, cite it — even if you paraphrase the original content.
Illustrations: If you use someone else’s graphic, table, figure, or artwork, you must credit the source. These may also require permission and a copyright notice.
Photographs: If you use your own photography or an image that allows use without attribution, no citation is required. In other cases, add a note below the image and a corresponding reference citation.

Common Knowledge Exception

You don’t need to cite information that’s considered common knowledge in the public domain — as long as you reword the well-known fact. According to the Purdue Global Writing Center , information must have the following traits to be considered common knowledge:

The reader would already be aware of it.
It’s a widely accepted fact; for example, there are 24 hours in a day.
It’s accessible via common information sources.
It originates from folklore or a well-known story.
It’s commonly acknowledged in your field and known by your audience.

Why Citation Is Important

The importance of citation goes beyond the avoidance of plagiarism. According to the Purdue Global Writing Center’s Plagiarism Information page, citation:

Distinguishes new ideas from existing information
Reinforces arguments regarding a particular topic
Allows readers to find your sources and conduct additional research
Maintains ethical research and writing
Ensures attribution of ideas, avoiding plagiarism

Additionally, proper citation enhances your credibility with readers, displays your critical thinking skills, and demonstrates your strong writing ability.

Plagiarism Prevention and Writing Resources

It takes time to develop strong writing and paraphrasing skills. Thinking of writing as more of a discussion than a report may help you develop your skills. Remember that it’s not about reporting and repeating information; it’s about expanding on ideas and making them your own.

Below are some tools to help you avoid plagiarism, accurately cite sources, and improve your writing as you develop your own unique voice.

Plagiarism Checkers

DupliChecker
Grammarly's Plagiarism Checker
Plagiarism Detector

Citation Managers

Academic Writer
Grammarly’s Free Citation Generator

>> Read: Apps and Extensions to Help You With APA Citations

Writing Tools

Check out purdue global’s writing center resources.

The Purdue Global Writing Center can help guide students through the paper writing process — from avoiding plagiarism to proper paraphrasing to getting the right citations.

Students may access this resource from the Purdue Global campus homepage . Click “My Studies,” followed by “Academic Success Center.”

From there, students have several options:

Ask a writing tutor
Connect with a tutor for a one-on-one session
Browse the Study Studio
Watch webinars

Students can check out the Using Sources & APA Style page , which includes several resources to guide students through the process of formatting a document and citing sources in the American Psychological Association (APA) style. The Plagiarism Information page offers a tutorial designed to help students identify instances of plagiarism and understand how to avoid them.

See Notes and Conditions below for important information.

About the Author

Purdue Global

Earn a degree you're proud of and employers respect at Purdue Global, Purdue's online university for working adults. Accredited and online, Purdue Global gives you the flexibility and support you need to come back and move your career forward. Choose from 175+ programs, all backed by the power of Purdue.

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Paraphrasing vs Plagiarism (vs “Paraphrasing Plagiarism”)

Posted on November 10, 2021 December 16, 2021

If you’ve done a fair share of writing, academically or otherwise, you’ve likely heard of both plagiarizing and paraphrasing. You’ve probably combed over essays or reports for accurate information and correct citations, but somehow someone always spot something you missed.

It can be confusing to avoid plagiarism with so many types out there and without a clear outline of the rules. Even more so when paraphrasing plagiarism sits on a fine line between what’s allowed and what’s not.

What Is Plagiarism?

Most people have a basic understanding of plagiarism : copying someone else’s words or work without crediting the original author or owner.

If you were to borrow a direct quotation from a famous film character and claim it as your own idea, chances are no one would believe you. But, that doesn’t change the fact that it would be considered plagiarism.

We tend to hear about plagiarism in terms of written works, but it covers all manner of works. A general guideline is to consider copyright. If it can be copyrighted, it can be plagiarized.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is the legal protection of intellectual property. Therefore, only the copyright owner has the legal right to reproduce or allow the reproduction of their work.

While many authors, artists, composers, and creators might choose to file the paperwork to claim the copyright of their work, you don’t need to make it official. Copyright is intrinsic. The second you complete your poem or compose a new song, you are the copyright owner.

Copyright law can vary depending on the country. Although there is no such thing as international copyright, most countries offer some protections for foreign works.

In the US, copyright protection lasts for the duration of the author’s life plus 70 years. Additionally, work for hire, anonymous, or pseudonymous lasts 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation. As creation and publication are different standards, the protection defaults to whichever is shorter.

What if an artist borrowed a section of Starry Night, such as using the sky portion over an original cityscape? Imagine the artist doesn’t have malicious intent but rather the intention to pay homage to an inspirational creator.

While writing your original novel, what if you include a paragraph or chapter that plays off ‘Riddles in the Dark’ from The Hobbit? Of course, Gollum and Bilbo aren’t in the scene, but your characters similarly exchange riddles.

Van Gogh died in 1890, so he no longer owns the copyright. Therefore, works by Van Gogh are in the public domain , meaning the general public may use or recreate them without obtaining permission.

Public domain includes works with expired copyrights, public works intended for general public use, and short phrases. For example, “Beam me up,” most associated with Star Trek is free to use.

However, if you were to try to quote an entire line of dialogue from Star Trek, such as including names and phrases more extended than a sentence, you would be infringing copyright. Using that brief three-word phrase might pay homage to your favorite show, but quoting an exchange of dialogue with Scotty and Kirk would be plagiarism.

As for the second homage example, J.R.R. Tolkien died in 1973, which means his estate still has legal rights. Therefore, if you were to imitate the scene or chapter without permission or crediting Tolkien, the homage would be plagiarism.

Taking it a step further, let’s assume you credit Tolkien for inspiring the scene in the author’s notes at the end of your book. It would not be plagiarism if you wrote a scene where two characters exchanged riddles trying to win a prize. However, it would be plagiarism if those two characters were in a cave, one of them promising not to kill the other if they win.

The difference is that plagiarism is when you copy the presentation of an idea. For example, no one owns the concept of riddles or games, which means your homage might paraphrase the idea of riddles-to-the-death, but not the exact words. However, it’s not homage when you place characters in a strikingly similar situation and connotation for more than a phrase or scene.

Types of Plagiarism

There are many types of plagiarism . Some sources disagree about the amount, as some break down more specific categories while others generalize. Here we’ll discuss the general types with clarification on how they might divide into subcategories.

Word for word plagiarism is the simplest, most familiar type. Notably, copying, at any length, from a direct sentence to a direct paragraph would be verbatim plagiarism.

Mosaic or patchwork plagiarism falls under verbatim. However, mosaic plagiarism includes instances where the writer mentioned the quoted work earlier, but it is not directly connected.

For example, if you were discussing The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields,” you might mention the title in the first paragraph of your essay. Then, you open the third paragraph with lyrics from the song. You know you’re quoting the music, and Beatles fans know, but you need your essay to acknowledge the use within direct proximity.

For a correct example:

‘Always, no sometimes, think it’s me / But you know I know when it’s a dream,’ is an iconic lyric from “Strawberry Fields.”

Self-Plagiarism

If you own the work, you can recreate it. However, the same isn’t true when you’re submitting work. For example, if you write an essay about Hamlet in high school, presenting the same paper for a university class is self-plagiarism.

Legal action is rarely necessary for self-plagiarism unless you promised an original work and breached a contract.

Accidental Plagiarism

When a citation isn’t precise, it is still plagiarism, even if the intention was to credit another creator. Crucial to avoiding this type of plagiarism is understanding your preferred manual of style.

Generally, Associated Press (AP) applies to journalism, Chicago for publishing/business, American Psychological Association (APA) for academic writing, and Modern Language Association (MLA) for humanities disciplines.

Accidental plagiarism includes inaccurate citation, failure to acknowledge, attribution or inaccurate source plagiarism, and paraphrasing.

What Is Paraphrasing Plagiarism?

Paraphrasing is not always plagiarism. Effective paraphrasing requires an understanding of the topic or quote well enough to express it originally. It is a form of summarizing or rephrasing that clarifies the meaning of another author’s words in your own words.

A common pitfall of paraphrasing is copying a sentence or direct quote, then the writer tweaks a few words, rewords sentences, or replaces original words with synonyms. Choosing to modify rather than rewrite from scratch is paraphrasing plagiarism.

For an example of paraphrasing plagiarism: Imagine you’re writing that Hamlet essay. During your research, you read an inspiring analysis. If you copy phrases or sentences directly from that analysis, you would be plagiarising. Likewise, rewording a metaphor or sentence you liked would be paraphrasing plagiarism.

However, you could quote a phrase and include a citation. Alternatively, you could write an original interpretation of that idea.

How to Avoid Paraphrasing Plagiarism

The first step to avoid paraphrasing plagiarism is never to copy and paste. However, if while reading your notes over and over, you’ve lost track of where your original words begin, and the quotation ends, a paraphrasing plagiarism tool can catch mistakes that slip through the cracks.

Avoiding plagiarism can be tricky without extra eyes. However, whether your writing process involves meticulous text citation or you sometimes lose track of your source material, a plagiarism checker can save your hard work from accidental plagiarism, including incorrect paraphrasing.

Focus on making your writing the best it can be without stressing over plagiarism. Check out Quetext’s plagiarism checker , which recognizes plagiarism lightning-fast and generates any missed citations.

Sign Up for Quetext Today!

Click below to find a pricing plan that fits your needs.

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A publication of the harvard college writing program.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources

The Honor Code
What Constitutes Plagiarism?

In academic writing, it is considered plagiarism to draw any idea or any language from someone else without adequately crediting that source in your paper. It doesn't matter whether the source is a published author, another student, a website without clear authorship, a website that sells academic papers, or any other person: Taking credit for anyone else's work is stealing, and it is unacceptable in all academic situations, whether you do it intentionally or by accident.

The ease with which you can find information of all kinds online means that you need to be extra vigilant about keeping track of where you are getting information and ideas and about giving proper credit to the authors of the sources you use. If you cut and paste from an electronic document into your notes and forget to clearly label the document in your notes, or if you draw information from a series of websites without taking careful notes, you may end up taking credit for ideas that aren't yours, whether you mean to or not.

It's important to remember that every website is a document with an author, and therefore every website must be cited properly in your paper. For example, while it may seem obvious to you that an idea drawn from Professor Steven Pinker's book The Language Instinct should only appear in your paper if you include a clear citation, it might be less clear that information you glean about language acquisition from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy website warrants a similar citation. Even though the authorship of this encyclopedia entry is less obvious than it might be if it were a print article (you need to scroll down the page to see the author's name, and if you don't do so you might mistakenly think an author isn't listed), you are still responsible for citing this material correctly. Similarly, if you consult a website that has no clear authorship, you are still responsible for citing the website as a source for your paper. The kind of source you use, or the absence of an author linked to that source, does not change the fact that you always need to cite your sources (see Evaluating Web Sources ).

Verbatim Plagiarism

If you copy language word for word from another source and use that language in your paper, you are plagiarizing verbatim . Even if you write down your own ideas in your own words and place them around text that you've drawn directly from a source, you must give credit to the author of the source material, either by placing the source material in quotation marks and providing a clear citation, or by paraphrasing the source material and providing a clear citation.

The passage below comes from Ellora Derenoncourt’s article, “Can You Move to Opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration.”

Here is the article citation in APA style:

Derenoncourt, E. (2022). Can you move to opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration. The American Economic Review , 112(2), 369–408. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20200002

Source material

Why did urban Black populations in the North increase so dramatically between 1940 and 1970? After a period of reduced mobility during the Great Depression, Black out-migration from the South resumed at an accelerated pace after 1940. Wartime jobs in the defense industry and in naval shipyards led to substantial Black migration to California and other Pacific states for the first time since the Migration began. Migration continued apace to midwestern cities in the 1950s and1960s, as the booming automobile industry attracted millions more Black southerners to the North, particularly to cities like Detroit or Cleveland. Of the six million Black migrants who left the South during the Great Migration, four million of them migrated between 1940 and 1970 alone.

Plagiarized version

While this student has written her own sentence introducing the topic, she has copied the italicized sentences directly from the source material. She has left out two sentences from Derenoncourt’s paragraph, but has reproduced the rest verbatim:

But things changed mid-century. After a period of reduced mobility during the Great Depression, Black out-migration from the South resumed at an accelerated pace after 1940. Wartime jobs in the defense industry and in naval shipyards led to substantial Black migration to California and other Pacific states for the first time since the Migration began. Migration continued apace to midwestern cities in the 1950s and1960s, as the booming automobile industry attracted millions more Black southerners to the North, particularly to cities like Detroit or Cleveland.

Acceptable version #1: Paraphrase with citation

In this version the student has paraphrased Derenoncourt’s passage, making it clear that these ideas come from a source by introducing the section with a clear signal phrase ("as Derenoncourt explains…") and citing the publication date, as APA style requires.

But things changed mid-century. In fact, as Derenoncourt (2022) explains, the wartime increase in jobs in both defense and naval shipyards marked the first time during the Great Migration that Black southerners went to California and other west coast states. After the war, the increase in jobs in the car industry led to Black southerners choosing cities in the midwest, including Detroit and Cleveland.

Acceptable version #2 : Direct quotation with citation or direct quotation and paraphrase with citation

If you quote directly from an author and cite the quoted material, you are giving credit to the author. But you should keep in mind that quoting long passages of text is only the best option if the particular language used by the author is important to your paper. Social scientists and STEM scholars rarely quote in their writing, paraphrasing their sources instead. If you are writing in the humanities, you should make sure that you only quote directly when you think it is important for your readers to see the original language.

In the example below, the student quotes part of the passage and paraphrases the rest.

But things changed mid-century. In fact, as Derenoncourt (2022) explains, “after a period of reduced mobility during the Great Depression, Black out-migration from the South resumed at an accelerated pace after 1940” (p. 379). Derenoncourt notes that after the war, the increase in jobs in the car industry led to Black southerners choosing cities in the midwest, including Detroit and Cleveland.

Mosaic Plagiarism

If you copy bits and pieces from a source (or several sources), changing a few words here and there without either adequately paraphrasing or quoting directly, the result is mosaic plagiarism . Even if you don't intend to copy the source, you may end up with this type of plagiarism as a result of careless note-taking and confusion over where your source's ideas end and your own ideas begin. You may think that you've paraphrased sufficiently or quoted relevant passages, but if you haven't taken careful notes along the way, or if you've cut and pasted from your sources, you can lose track of the boundaries between your own ideas and those of your sources. It's not enough to have good intentions and to cite some of the material you use. You are responsible for making clear distinctions between your ideas and the ideas of the scholars who have informed your work. If you keep track of the ideas that come from your sources and have a clear understanding of how your own ideas differ from those ideas, and you follow the correct citation style, you will avoid mosaic plagiarism.

Indeed, of the more than 3500 hours of instruction during medical school, an average of less than 60 hours are devoted to all of bioethics, health law and health economics combined . Most of the instruction is during the preclinical courses, leaving very little instructional time when students are experiencing bioethical or legal challenges during their hands-on, clinical training. More than 60 percent of the instructors in bioethics, health law, and health economics have not published since 1990 on the topic they are teaching.

--Persad, G.C., Elder, L., Sedig,L., Flores, L., & Emanuel, E. (2008). The current state of medical school education in bioethics, health law, and health economics. Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 36 , 89-94.

Students can absorb the educational messages in medical dramas when they view them for entertainment. In fact, even though they were not created specifically for education, these programs can be seen as an entertainment-education tool [43, 44]. In entertainment-education shows, viewers are exposed to educational content in entertainment contexts, using visual language that is easy to understand and triggers emotional engagement [45]. The enhanced emotional engagement and cognitive development [5] and moral imagination make students more sensitive to training [22].

--Cambra-Badii, I., Moyano, E., Ortega, I., Josep-E Baños, & Sentí, M. (2021). TV medical dramas: Health sciences students’ viewing habits and potential for teaching issues related to bioethics and professionalism. BMC Medical Education, 21 , 1-11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-021-02947-7

Paragraph #1.

All of the ideas in this paragraph after the first sentence are drawn directly from Persad. But because the student has placed the citation mid-paragraph, the final two sentences wrongly appear to be the student’s own idea:

In order to advocate for the use of medical television shows in the medical education system, it is also important to look at the current bioethical curriculum. In the more than 3500 hours of training that students undergo in medical school, only about 60 hours are focused on bioethics, health law, and health economics (Persad et al, 2008). It is also problematic that students receive this training before they actually have spent time treating patients in the clinical setting. Most of these hours are taught by instructors without current publications in the field.

Paragraph #2.

All of the italicized ideas in this paragraph are either paraphrased or taken verbatim from Cambra-Badii, et al., but the student does not cite the source at all. As a result, readers will assume that the student has come up with these ideas himself:

Students can absorb the educational messages in medical dramas when they view them for entertainment. It doesn’t matter if the shows were designed for medical students; they can still be a tool for education. In these hybrid entertainment-education shows, viewers are exposed to educational content that triggers an emotional reaction. By allowing for this emotional, cognitive, and moral engagement, the shows make students more sensitive to training . There may be further applications to this type of education: the role of entertainment as a way of encouraging students to consider ethical situations could be extended to other professions, including law or even education.

The student has come up with the final idea in the paragraph (that this type of ethical training could apply to other professions), but because nothing in the paragraph is cited, it reads as if it is part of a whole paragraph of his own ideas, rather than the point that he is building to after using the ideas from the article without crediting the authors.

Acceptable version

In the first paragraph, the student uses signal phrases in nearly every sentence to reference the authors (“According to Persad et al.,” “As the researchers argue,” “They also note”), which makes it clear throughout the paragraph that all of the paragraph’s information has been drawn from Persad et al. The student also uses a clear APA in-text citation to point the reader to the original article. In the second paragraph, the student paraphrases and cites the source’s ideas and creates a clear boundary behind those ideas and his own, which appear in the final paragraph.

In order to advocate for the use of medical television shows in the medical education system, it is also important to look at the current bioethical curriculum. According to Persad et al. (2008), only about one percent of teaching time throughout the four years of medical school is spent on ethics. As the researchers argue, this presents a problem because the students are being taught about ethical issues before they have a chance to experience those issues themselves. They also note that more than sixty percent of instructors teaching bioethics to medical students have no recent publications in the subject.

The research suggests that medical dramas may be a promising source for discussions of medical ethics. Cambra-Badii et al. (2021) explain that even when watched for entertainment, medical shows can help viewers engage emotionally with the characters and may prime them to be more receptive to training in medical ethics. There may be further applications to this type of education: the role of entertainment as a way of encouraging students to consider ethical situations could be extended to other professions, including law or even education.

Inadequate Paraphrase

When you paraphrase, your task is to distill the source's ideas in your own words. It's not enough to change a few words here and there and leave the rest; instead, you must completely restate the ideas in the passage in your own words. If your own language is too close to the original, then you are plagiarizing, even if you do provide a citation.

In order to make sure that you are using your own words, it's a good idea to put away the source material while you write your paraphrase of it. This way, you will force yourself to distill the point you think the author is making and articulate it in a new way. Once you have done this, you should look back at the original and make sure that you have represented the source’s ideas accurately and that you have not used the same words or sentence structure. If you do want to use some of the author's words for emphasis or clarity, you must put those words in quotation marks and provide a citation.

The passage below comes from Michael Sandel’s article, “The Case Against Perfection.” Here’s the article citation in MLA style:

Sandel, Michael. “The Case Against Perfection.” The Atlantic , April 2004, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/04/the-case-against-pe... .

Though there is much to be said for this argument, I do not think the main problem with enhancement and genetic engineering is that they undermine effort and erode human agency. The deeper danger is that they represent a kind of hyperagency—a Promethean aspiration to remake nature, including human nature, to serve our purposes and satisfy our desires. The problem is not the drift to mechanism but the drive to mastery. And what the drive to mastery misses and may even destroy is an appreciation of the gifted character of human powers and achievements.

The version below is an inadequate paraphrase because the student has only cut or replaced a few words: “I do not think the main problem” became “the main problem is not”; “deeper danger” became “bigger problem”; “aspiration” became “desire”; “the gifted character of human powers and achievements” became “the gifts that make our achievements possible.”

The main problem with enhancement and genetic engineering is not that they undermine effort and erode human agency. The bigger problem is that they represent a kind of hyperagency—a Promethean desire to remake nature, including human nature, to serve our purposes and satisfy our desires. The problem is not the drift to mechanism but the drive to mastery. And what the drive to mastery misses and may even destroy is an appreciation of the gifts that make our achievements possible (Sandel).

Acceptable version #1: Adequate paraphrase with citation

In this version, the student communicates Sandel’s ideas but does not borrow language from Sandel. Because the student uses Sandel’s name in the first sentence and has consulted an online version of the article without page numbers, there is no need for a parenthetical citation.

Michael Sandel disagrees with the argument that genetic engineering is a problem because it replaces the need for humans to work hard and make their own choices. Instead, he argues that we should be more concerned that the decision to use genetic enhancement is motivated by a desire to take control of nature and bend it to our will instead of appreciating its gifts.

Acceptable version #2: Direct quotation with citation

In this version, the student uses Sandel’s words in quotation marks and provides a clear MLA in-text citation. In cases where you are going to talk about the exact language that an author uses, it is acceptable to quote longer passages of text. If you are not going to discuss the exact language, you should paraphrase rather than quoting extensively.

The author argues that “the main problem with enhancement and genetic engineering is not that they undermine effort and erode human agency,” but, rather that “they represent a kind of hyperagency—a Promethean desire to remake nature, including human nature, to serve our purposes and satisfy our desires. The problem is not the drift to mechanism but the drive to mastery. And what the drive to mastery misses and may even destroy is an appreciation of the gifts that make our achievements possible” (Sandel).

Uncited Paraphrase

When you use your own language to describe someone else's idea, that idea still belongs to the author of the original material. Therefore, it's not enough to paraphrase the source material responsibly; you also need to cite the source, even if you have changed the wording significantly. As with quoting, when you paraphrase you are offering your reader a glimpse of someone else's work on your chosen topic, and you should also provide enough information for your reader to trace that work back to its original form. The rule of thumb here is simple: Whenever you use ideas that you did not think up yourself, you need to give credit to the source in which you found them, whether you quote directly from that material or provide a responsible paraphrase.

The passage below comes from C. Thi Nguyen’s article, “Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles.”

Here’s the citation for the article, in APA style:

Nguyen, C. (2020). Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles. Episteme, 17 (2), 141-161. doi:10.1017/epi.2018.32

Epistemic bubbles can easily form accidentally. But the most plausible explanation for the particular features of echo chambers is something more malicious. Echo chambers are excellent tools to maintain, reinforce, and expand power through epistemic control. Thus, it is likely (though not necessary) that echo chambers are set up intentionally, or at least maintained, for this functionality (Nguyen, 2020).

The student who wrote the paraphrase below has drawn these ideas directly from Nguyen’s article but has not credited the author. Although she paraphrased adequately, she is still responsible for citing Nguyen as the source of this information.

Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles have different origins. While epistemic bubbles can be created organically, it’s more likely that echo chambers will be formed by those who wish to keep or even grow their control over the information that people hear and understand.

In this version, the student eliminates any possible ambiguity about the source of the ideas in the paragraph. By using a signal phrase to name the author whenever the source of the ideas could be unclear, the student clearly attributes these ideas to Nguyen.

According to Nguyen (2020), echo chambers and epistemic bubbles have different origins. Nguyen argues that while epistemic bubbles can be created organically, it’s more likely that echo chambers will be formed by those who wish to keep or even grow their control over the information that people hear and understand.

Uncited Quotation

When you put source material in quotation marks in your essay, you are telling your reader that you have drawn that material from somewhere else. But it's not enough to indicate that the material in quotation marks is not the product of your own thinking or experimentation: You must also credit the author of that material and provide a trail for your reader to follow back to the original document. This way, your reader will know who did the original work and will also be able to go back and consult that work if they are interested in learning more about the topic. Citations should always go directly after quotations.

The passage below comes from Deirdre Mask’s nonfiction book, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power.

Here is the MLA citation for the book:

Mask, Deirdre. The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2021.

In New York, even addresses are for sale. The city allows a developer, for the bargain price of $11,000 (as of 2019), to apply to change the street address to something more attractive.

It’s not enough for the student to indicate that these words come from a source; the source must be cited:

After all, “in New York, even addresses are for sale. The city allows a developer, for the bargain price of $11,000 (as of 2019), to apply to change the street address to something more attractive.”

Here, the student has cited the source of the quotation using an MLA in-text citation:

Using Material from Another Student's Work

In some courses you will be allowed or encouraged to form study groups, to work together in class generating ideas, or to collaborate on your thinking in other ways. Even in those cases, it's imperative that you understand whether all of your writing must be done independently, or whether group authorship is permitted. Most often, even in courses that allow some collaborative discussion, the writing or calculations that you do must be your own. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't collect feedback on your writing from a classmate or a writing tutor; rather, it means that the argument you make (and the ideas you rely on to make it) should either be your own or you should give credit to the source of those ideas.

So what does this mean for the ideas that emerge from class discussion or peer review exercises? Unlike the ideas that your professor offers in lecture (you should always cite these), ideas that come up in the course of class discussion or peer review are collaborative, and often not just the product of one individual's thinking. If, however, you see a clear moment in discussion when a particular student comes up with an idea, you should cite that student. In any case, when your work is informed by class discussions, it's courteous and collegial to include a discursive footnote in your paper that lets your readers know about that discussion. So, for example, if you were writing a paper about the narrator in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and you came up with your idea during a discussion in class, you might place a footnote in your paper that states the following: "I am indebted to the members of my Expos 20 section for sparking my thoughts about the role of the narrator as Greek Chorus in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried ."

It is important to note that collaboration policies can vary by course, even within the same department, and you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with each course's expectation about collaboration. Collaboration policies are often stated in the syllabus, but if you are not sure whether it is appropriate to collaborate on work for any course, you should always consult your instructor.

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

PDFs for This Section

Avoiding Plagiarism
Online Library and Citation Tools

Should universities be worried about the increasing capabilities of AI?

If a piece of writing was 49 per cent written by AI, with the remaining 51 per cent written by a human, is this considered original work? Image: Unsplash/ Danial Igdery

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Stay up to date:, education, gender and work.

The use of technology in academic writing is already widespread, with teachers and students using AI-based tools to support the work they are doing.
However, as AI becomes increasingly advanced, institutions need to properly define what can be defined as AI-assistance and what is plagiarism or cheating, writes an academic.
For example, if a piece of writing was 49% written by AI, with the remaining 51% written by a human, is this considered original work?

The dramatic rise of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has spotlit concerns about the role of technology in exam surveillance — and also in student cheating .

Some universities have reported more cheating during the pandemic, and such concerns are unfolding in a climate where technologies that allow for the automation of writing continue to improve.

Over the past two years, the ability of artificial intelligence to generate writing has leapt forward significantly , particularly with the development of what’s known as the language generator GPT-3. With this, companies such as Google , Microsoft and NVIDIA can now produce “human-like” text .

AI-generated writing has raised the stakes of how universities and schools will gauge what constitutes academic misconduct, such as plagiarism . As scholars with an interest in academic integrity and the intersections of work, society and educators’ labour, we believe that educators and parents should be, at the very least, paying close attention to these significant developments .

AI & academic writing

The use of technology in academic writing is already widespread. For example, many universities already use text-based plagiarism detectors like Turnitin , while students might use Grammarly , a cloud-based writing assistant. Examples of writing support include automatic text generation, extraction, prediction, mining, form-filling, paraphrasing , translation and transcription.

Advancements in AI technology have led to new tools, products and services being offered to writers to improve content and efficiency . As these improve, soon entire articles or essays might be generated and written entirely by artificial intelligence . In schools, the implications of such developments will undoubtedly shape the future of learning, writing and teaching.

Misconduct concerns already widespread

Research has revealed that concerns over academic misconduct are already widespread across institutions higher education in Canada and internationally.

In Canada, there is little data regarding the rates of misconduct. Research published in 2006 based on data from mostly undergraduate students at 11 higher education institutions found 53 per cent reported having engaged in one or more instances of serious cheating on written work, which was defined as copying material without footnoting, copying material almost word for word, submitting work done by someone else, fabricating or falsifying a bibliography, submitting a paper they either bought or got from someone else for free.

Academic misconduct is in all likelihood under-reported across Canadian higher education institutions .

There are different types of violations of academic integrity, including plagiarism , contract cheating (where students hire other people to write their papers) and exam cheating, among others .

Unfortunately, with technology, students can use their ingenuity and entrepreneurialism to cheat. These concerns are also applicable to faculty members, academics and writers in other fields, bringing new concerns surrounding academic integrity and AI such as:

If a piece of writing was 49 per cent written by AI, with the remaining 51 per cent written by a human, is this considered original work?
What if an essay was 100 per cent written by AI, but a student did some of the coding themselves?
What qualifies as “AI assistance” as opposed to “academic cheating”?
Do the same rules apply to students as they would to academics and researchers?

We are asking these questions in our own research , and we know that in the face of all this, educators will be required to consider how writing can be effectively assessed or evaluated as these technologies improve.

a chart showing the growth forecasts of AI

Augmenting or diminishing integrity?

At the moment, little guidance, policy or oversight is available regarding technology, AI and academic integrity for teachers and educational leaders.

Over the past year, COVID-19 has pushed more students towards online learning — a sphere where teachers may become less familiar with their own students and thus, potentially, their writing.

While it remains impossible to predict the future of these technologies and their implications in education, we can attempt to discern some of the larger trends and trajectories that will impact teaching, learning and research.

Have you read?

Professor robot – why ai could soon be teaching in university classrooms, how digital technology is changing the university lecture, this is how university students can emerge from the pandemic stronger, technology & automation in education.

A key concern moving forward is the apparent movement towards the increased automation of education where educational technology companies offer commodities such as writing tools as proposed solutions for the various “problems” within education.

An example of this is automated assessment of student work, such as automated grading of student writing . Numerous commercial products already exist for automated grading, though the ethics of these technologies are yet to be fully explored by scholars and educators.

Overall, the traditional landscape surrounding academic integrity and authorship is being rapidly reshaped by technological developments. Such technological developments also spark concerns about a shift of professional control away from educators and ever-increasing new expectations of digital literacy in precarious working environments .

These complexities, concerns and questions will require further thought and discussion. Educational stakeholders at all levels will be required to respond and rethink definitions as well as values surrounding plagiarism, originality, academic ethics and academic labour in the very near future.

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License and Republishing

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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Paraphrasing vs Plagiarism: Differences with Examples

Smodin Editorial Team
Published: February 21, 2023

Paraphrasing and plagiarism are two essential aspects of any research work or study. In the contemporary world, where ethical laws highly protect intellectual and research work, it is rare for people to directly quote someone’s work in its original form.

When Should You Paraphrase?

Of course, maintaining the work’s ethical value and confidentiality is crucial to maintaining the quality of the research conducted. One tends to tweak and modify the words and restructures any phrase. In layman’s language, this is known as paraphrasing, which is done to avoid infringement on the owner’s rights. Every academic student and researcher should be knowledgeable about the meaning of paraphrasing. One must ensure that the purpose of the restated words is not changed in paraphrasing. This is where paraphrasing tools (Smodin’s Paraphrasing Tool) come into play and act as a lifesaver for any academic student. It is common to paraphrase whether you are writing an essay, an article, a thesis, or a research paper. It helps in delivering your ideas more effectively and coherently.

Should Plagiarism Be Used?

Paraphrasing is done where a direct quotation is irrelevant to the academic paper. While it is essential to paraphrase words, the lack of it leads to plagiarism. Plagiarism is something that every research student must be wary of and never do intentionally, as it can subjugate one’s work to harsh critique by peers. Furthermore, it can even be considered illegal and against research ethics. The very backbone of research is work that is free from any hints of plagiarism, and following the code of conduct is vital for the success of one’s written work. Not only does plagiarism tarnish the tonality of the writing, but it also ruins the writing structure and authenticity. So any time you add someone’s work to your paper, make sure you credit the author properly so that the work is not mistaken for your own in any way, shape, or form.

Mostly, plagiarism happens by mistake due to the need for the right tools to paraphrase one’s written work. Thankfully, many online tools can help you translate effectively and detect plagiarism that might be “plaguing” your document. Using these tools is encouraged by academic institutions to make your writing error-free. So now that it is evident why these terms are crucial let us understand with examples what the two terms mean and the critical differentiation between them. One must ensure that paraphrasing and plagiarism are distinct so that the quality of the paper is excellent.

What is Paraphrasing?

Simply put, paraphrasing means conveying somebody’s ideas in words that are entirely your own. According to Cambridge Dictionary, “paraphrasing” means “to repeat something written or spoken using different words, often in a humorous form or in a simpler and shorter form that makes the original meaning clearer.” Thus, even though it might be tempting to paraphrase a quote or a passage, you must be careful that it does not get considered plagiarism. In other words, you should use more synonyms and refrain from using original words and concepts. You can, however, use generic terms such as global warming and globalisation as they are commonly understood and accepted.

For example , let us take a look at this fact related to the human body:

Original phrase: At birth, infants have about 300 bones. However, some of these bones get fused as they grow older; eventually leading to only 206 bones by the time they attain adulthood.

Paraphrasing: Babies are born with approximately 300 bones in their body, but as they turn older and reach adulthood, the bones tend to amalgamate and decrease to just 206.

Plagiarism: Infants have about 300 bones at the time of birth . These bones get fused as they grow older, leaving them with just 206 bones in total by the time they attain adulthood .

From this, we can clearly understand the difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing.

In the first example (paraphrasing) , the text has been paraphrased effectively as there is the usage of synonyms (amalgamate, babies, etc.) Also, the translated text has restated words, and their meaning does not change.

In the second example (plagiarism) , a lot of plagiarism occurs as the writer has used exact words from the original text without quotation marks. Additionally, the actual words have been used, and there are a lot of duplicities.

What is Plagiarism?

Using parts of another person’s work and passing it across as your own, intentionally or unintentionally, is plagiarism. Exposure can even lead to a bad grade or cause extreme critique amongst one’s peers, as it is a morally unethical practice. Research allows no room for plagiarized work and can tamper the reputation of the one whose work is “stolen”. One can avoid such instances with the help of many online tools such as DupliChecker, Copyscape, and Plagiarism Detector. However, it is best to understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it manually, as getting exposed can have serious consequences.

When it comes to providing a proper citation, your local library’s help can help a lot. Also, online software and tools like Zotero, Ref Works, EndNote, and Mendeley can go a long way in ensuring that credit is provided wherever it may be due. It also helps to develop an understanding of the passage and understand the text after reviewing it thoroughly. By doing this, there will be little confusion, eliminating the need for plagiarism.

Types of Plagiarism

Paraphrasing vs plagiarism is a rather broad and versatile topic. There are several types of plagiarism, and having an understanding of each one of them is vital in academics and research. According to the Harvard College Writing Program, these are as follows:

Verbatim Plagiarism: This means copying someone’s work word by word.
Mosaic Plagiarism: Taking parts of text from various sources without crediting the author.
Inadequate Paraphrase: Paraphrasing that still has duplicity.
Uncited Paraphrase: Sufficiently copying another person’s work without giving credit.
Uncited Quotation: Lack of reference material on a quotation cited from an external source.
Using Another Student’s Work: Misusing someone’s ideas by completely copying them and taking all the credit for their work.

Thus, it is always handy to use RefWorks and Zotero to keep a proper log of all the citations and references used in your research paper or thesis. By doing so, you can go a long way in maintaining your work’s originality and ethical quality.

Is Paraphrasing The Same As Plagiarism?

Paraphrasing is not the same as plagiarism, as the former encompasses proper citations, quotation marks, and references wherever necessary. However, paraphrasing might count as plagiarism in cases where:

If your text is copied too closely to the original text, it is considered plagiarism. Yes, even if you provide proper citations. Thus, you are encouraged to use restated wording after grasping the passage’s meaning.
Paraphrasing can also be considered plagiarism if you do not provide credit to the original writer.

When is Paraphrasing Not the Same as Plagiarism?

Although the lines between the two concepts may seem blurred, there are instances where paraphrasing and plagiarism are not similar such as the following:

If you do not copy the original author’s work, word by word, and provide adequate citations, then paraphrasing is not considered the same as plagiarism.

How to Paraphrase Without Plagiarism?

To paraphrase without getting acquitted of plagiarism, follow the given tips:

Keep the Original Text at Bay

Once you have read the original text, leave it aside when it is time to write. By doing so, you can avoid confusion and hesitation. Also, use different coloured pens and highlighters while gathering sources for citing.

Gather a Genuine Understanding

Read the text a couple of times till you have acquired an understanding of it by heart. If you understand the concept, it will be a walk in the park for you to paraphrase it later in your words.

Adequately Cite The Sources

Be mindful of the various writing styles, such as the APA and the MLA. Follow the manual’s guidelines and use the format that is in the latest edition. Always use adequate citations and quotations in your writing.

Use Anti-Plagiarism Tools

If you are a student, you can benefit from anti-plagiarism tools such as Copyscape and DupliChecker. These tools will allow you to escape accidental plagiarism. You can also use Grammarly’s Plagiarism Tool, which is one of the best.

Smodin’s Paraphrasing Tool

Another excellent paraphrasing tool is Smodin’s paraphrasing tool . Using this tool, you can rewrite any passage using as little as five words. It restates your text with good grammar and ensures high quality simultaneously. Smodin’s paraphrasing tool also comes packaged with a citation generator and a plagiarism checker. In short, it is your one-stop solution for all research-related papers.

On A Final Note

Paraphrasing is essential in any work to convey an original text in one’s own words. Smodin’s Paraphrasing Tool, Grammarly , CopyScape, and, DupliChecker are all handy tools for writing a top-notch academic paper. So check them out through the links given in this article.

Why is it still plagiarism when I paraphrase and use my own words?

It’s hard to get anything right the first time. The vast majority of us don’t learn to ride a bicycle the first time we get on a bike. We don’t learn to drive right away, either. We learn with guidance and correction--and it’s even better when we receive that feedback in the moment and multiple times. Essay writing is the same.

While copying and pasting another person’s work and presenting it as your own idea can be a pretty clear example of plagiarism, there are a lot of nuances to academic misconduct, too. It’s not easy figuring out whether or not you’ve got it right, all while you’re trying to learn and avoid getting in trouble when you didn’t intend to plagiarize.

Let’s bring up one example-- like distinguishing paraphrasing and plagiarism from original work.

Students are told to “put ideas into your own words” in order to avoid plagiarism. We know to always cite quotations. They’re literally words from another person (easily accomplished via copy and paste) and they should be credited to someone else.

But teachers also tell students to “use the ideas of others in your own words,” which is also defined as paraphrasing. 🤪

What on earth is the difference? Isn’t taking the ideas of another person and putting them into your own words a way to avoid plagiarism??? Answer: Not when it’s someone else’s idea.

In a prior post on paraphrasing, we wrote, “Citation isn’t simply about giving credit for other people’s words. It’s about both giving credit to other people’s work that your writing is built upon and highlighting where your information came from” ( Plagiarism.org , 2018 ).

Here is an example of paraphrasing and an appropriate in-text APA citation for the above quote:

It is important not only to cite quotations in the form of other people’s words but also to give credit to the ideas of others. When your writing is built upon their ideas, it’s important to highlight your sources ( Plagiarism.org , 2018 ).

Because we didn’t build on the idea, but repeated it, we attributed the source.

When we have our own original ideas, then those are our own and there is no need to cite sources. For instance, we can use the above idea from Plagiarism.org and build on it to form an original idea:

It’s important to cite our sources, whether they’re quoted or paraphrased, to avoid plagiarism. First, let’s discuss how to tell the difference between our own words and paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing is summarizing the idea of another person--and when we use that idea to build our own, we then produce original work. So what are some effective ways to learn to avoid paraphrasing plagiarism?

Cite the source when you are repeating the idea of another person’s work.
If your text is too close to the original work, consider quoting and citing the source.

In sum, cite your source when you paraphrase.

Another way to avoid paraphrasing plagiarism is with real-time feedback. Sometimes our instructors give us a list that tells us all the different ways plagiarism can manifest. But it’s hard to learn something a month in advance, and then have to recall it within the process of writing. It’s way more effective for that information to arise while we’re writing. Wouldn’t that be nice?

There are tools like Draft Coach that can provide feedback in real-time that helps guide us towards proper citation so that we can focus on writing a better paper. And stop worrying about committing plagiarism by accident and getting an F or worse.

This is the best kind of feedback, one that actually helps, telling us specifically what we need to improve right then and there as we learn. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to do this automatically and do this all on our own. But just like driving or riding a bicycle, there’s a learning journey beforehand and students should feel supported through that process.

Because in the end, believing in yourself helps you to be more original.

← Previous entry

4 tips to easily avoid plagiarism.

How can you grow your writing confidence as a student and avoid plagiarism while drafting a paper? Read on to find out.

Can i be accused of plagiarism.

Can I Be Accused of Plagiarism if I Cite Everything Correctly?

Is paraphrasing plagiarism?

Is paraphrasing plagiarism? The short answer is: it depends. What defines the difference between the original text based on respectful resources and the plagiarized one is the quality of information processing.

Is it illegal to paraphrase?

Definitely, it is not illegal to paraphrase. However, one should not confuse proper paraphrasing with synonymization . You need actually to work with information, absorb it, and transform it into something new instead of just replacing the words.

The common mistakes leading to poor paraphrasing are:

to maintain the author’s sentence structure and tone of voice, repeating their method of expression;
to apply only minor changes to the structure;
not to use quotation marks to indicate the phrases coming from the author directly;
to mix up paraphrasing with synonymization, which, when overused, is considered plagiarism.

The thing is, modern plagiarism-checking tools can detect these kinds of changes and define your work as plagiarised. Let’s pay attention to an example from PurdueOWL website :

When we scan the poorly paraphrased version, it is evident that rewording is not good enough to trick the detector. PlagiarismCheck.org still finds similarities:

Can you avoid plagiarism by paraphrasing?

Actually, paraphrasing is a legitimate way to borrow others’ thoughts. You just need to learn how to use it wisely and moderately.

1 Develop critical thinking and a unique writing style. Enhance your paper with original examples, rely on your experience, and strive to find a new angle or approach to the subject. Paraphrase the part of the source you need to ground your ideas, but spice it up with new details.

2 Always credit your sources. Use quotation marks when you provide direct citations, and pay attention to proper attribution.

3 Dig into the topic. Read several sources, formulate a comprehensive impression, and distill the essence of the subject instead of rewriting a particular text.

4 Run a plagiarism check . Use a reliable tool to catch potential plagiarism and edit the paper before you submit it to the professor.

So, let’s sum it up. Is it plagiarism if you paraphrase? No, if you do it properly.

How can you be sure you have done a good job? Use a plagiarism detector to highlight the text’s parts requiring more effort and polish your paper.

PlagiarismCheck.org is here to help! Try it for free to check your paraphrasing skills, use AI checker GPT , and empower your writing.

Discover how PlagiarismCheck.org can empower your workflow!

What is a plagiarism checker and where can I find one?

How Do Plagiarism Checkers Work?

Top Conferences for Educators in 2024

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Academic Cheating Statistics Teachers Need to Know

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AI plagiarism changers: What academic leaders need to know

Part 1 of 2

How can institutions safeguard themselves from the evolving landscape of academic misconduct and AI-powered paraphrasing tools? We’ll discuss the impact of AI plagiarism changers on academic reputations and ways to mitigate the negative impact of plagiarism changers at institutions in this blog post.

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Plagiarism changers, word spinners, text spinners , and the like are part of an ever-evolving challenge to academic integrity. By taking existing text and, using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and other applications, AI-powered plagiarism changers adjust words and phrases with the intent of evading plagiarism detection software.

Shortcut solutions prey on students with a lack of sophisticated knowledge, marketing themselves as “plagiarism free,” when in fact they are—in the case of essay mills —another form of misconduct or—in the case of plagiarism changers and text spinners—still committing plagiarism when ideas aren’t attributed, regardless of phrasing. These tools take advantage of stressed students who don’t understand nuances.

An unpleasant but true observation: when it comes to “plagiarism free,” they mean to say they evade plagiarism detection or similarity checking rather than adhere to academic integrity principles.

Raising awareness is one of the first steps towards upholding academic integrity. To that end, we will discuss what AI plagiarism changers are, and how they work.

Plagiarism changers are in some ways a new word for tools called “ word spinners ” or “paraphrasing tools” or “text spinners.” With the advancement of AI, plagiarism changers are more sophisticated , using machine learning algorithms to transform existing content while maintaining coherence, going beyond the use of synonyms. This is troublesome, because plagiarism changers are often used with the intention of avoiding plagiarism detection when not accompanied with citation.

“Article spinning” is a related term for plagiarism changers: article spinners rephrase entire manuscripts and retain the original meaning and ideas. Using them can also violate copyright laws, because writers are not producing their own original ideas and simultaneously not attributing prior work.

When plagiarism changers are used, the appearance of the words change, but the meaning remains the same; reusing these ideas without citations or attribution is a form of plagiarism called “ paraphrasing plagiarism ,” and may qualify as deliberate or intentional plagiarism. On the other hand, when students paraphrase original work on their own and forget to attribute, that may qualify as accidental plagiarism. Nevertheless, without attribution they are all forms of plagiarism, regardless of intent, as the writer is representing someone else’s ideas as their own.

On the other hand, when writers correctly cite their sources, paraphrasing is not plagiarism.

However, by shortcutting the process by which students learn how to paraphrase and attribute, plagiarism changers directly impact learning outcomes. It is important for students to learn how to write and properly paraphrase as well as distinguish when to cite and how to do so, in order to learn to absorb and then synthesize original thoughts, uphold academic integrity, academic reputation, and function as a “good academic citizen,” which is a precedent for future workplace behavior ( Guerrero-Dib, et. al., 2020 ).

Some plagiarism changers and text spinners are subscription-based while others offer their services for free. Their quality runs the gamut and they are widely available online.

As with essay mills, higher fees may mean better quality products; as a result, those who have the means to pay for a more sophisticated text spinner like those backed with more sophisticated AI, may be able to avoid detection and thus, discipline. This may contribute to the widening inequality gap in education .

Plagiarism changers market themselves as “time-saving,” “easy,” “helpful,” “effective,” and most problematically, “plagiarism-free.” The corresponding audience for this messaging are writers, students, and researchers who are pressed for time, stressed, and struggling, precisely the people who need the most help.

Oftentimes, too, paraphrasing tools advertise themselves to professional and marketing writers, which can confuse students and muddy the waters. If other writers use plagiarism changers, why can’ t they? It’s important to distinguish that students are in a learning process. However, even for professional writers utilizing paraphrasing tools, there are issues around copyright and plagiarism when work isn’t attributed.

AI plagiarism changers rely on the principles of Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze and comprehend the original content they are presented with. NLP is a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on enabling computers to understand and process human language.

To begin the process, AI plagiarism changers utilize algorithms to break down the original content into its constituent parts, such as sentences, phrases, and words. They then apply various NLP techniques, including syntactic and semantic analysis, to decipher the underlying meaning, context, and structure of the text. This then makes for a more sophisticated output than word spinners that simply substitute synonyms.

When paraphrasing tools are powered by NLP, their output can be remarkably sophisticated, more so than old generation word spinners and text spinners. This is a cause for concern when AI plagiarism changers are misused.

Syntactic analysis involves examining the grammatical structure of the content. It helps the AI system identify parts of speech, sentence boundaries, and the relationship between words and phrases. By understanding the grammatical structure, the system can generate new variations of the text while maintaining coherence and readability.

Semantic analysis , on the other hand, delves deeper into the meaning of the original text. It enables the AI system to grasp the intended message, interpret the nuances, and identify key concepts and relationships within the content. This understanding allows the system to generate new versions that convey similar ideas but use different vocabulary or sentence structures.

AI plagiarism changers employ complex algorithms that combine syntactic and semantic analysis with machine learning techniques. These algorithms learn from vast amounts of training data, including pre-existing texts, to develop an understanding of language patterns and generate contextually appropriate variations.

By utilizing these algorithms, AI plagiarism changers can generate entirely new versions of the text that may differ significantly from the original while preserving the underlying meaning. These variations can involve paraphrasing, sentence restructuring, synonym substitution, or reorganization of ideas. The purpose is to create content that appears original and unique, making it challenging for plagiarism detection software to flag any similarities with existing sources.

The effectiveness of AI plagiarism changers lies in their ability to produce content that evades traditional plagiarism detection methods, which often rely on direct textual matches or similarities. By generating variations that are less likely to be detected, these tools pose a significant challenge to traditional plagiarism detection software and algorithms.

We were curious what ChatGPT, a popular LLM, would say about plagiarism changers. Being a common AI tool among students for shortcutting assignments, ChatGPT may be an information resource for students curious about AI-powered plagiarism changers. If students are looking to ChatGPT for answers, what is the information they receive?

According to ChatGPT:

“Plagiarism, the act of using someone else's work or ideas without proper attribution, has become a pervasive issue in educational institutions. However, with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), innovative solutions are being developed to address this problem.

AI plagiarism changers are sophisticated software applications that utilize the power of machine learning algorithms to transform and rephrase existing written content while preserving its meaning and coherence. These advanced systems are designed to help students, researchers, and writers avoid plagiarism by generating unique and original content from existing sources.

The use of AI in combating plagiarism represents a significant step forward in promoting academic integrity.”

Upon first reading, ChatGPT’s statement is utterly confusing; ChatGPT’s response is very wordy, turns a blind eye to contributing facts, and is ultimately self-promoting. Upon closer examination, ChatGPT manipulates concepts by saying that AI plagiarism changers “solve” plagiarism issues and “help students avoid plagiarism.” ChatGPT doesn’t actually say plagiarism changers uphold academic integrity as a whole. Notice too, that it completely overlooks the importance of citation. Its statement is very shallow. ChatGPT’s definition of AI plagiarism changers is similar to the way in which essay mills gaslight their audience by engaging with wordplay to take advantage of writers who may have gaps in understanding of academic integrity.

For vulnerable students, this messaging is dangerous. As more and more people ask ChatGPT for advice and input, false and/or incomplete information may be ingested.

AI-powered paraphrasing tools are more robust than ever. We addressed older generation plagiarism changers (e.g., word spinners, text spinners, or paraphrasing tools) in a prior post about word spinners . In that same post, we provided an example about the work produced by these paraphrasing tools.

Original text:

“While the goal of word spinners is to retain the meaning of the original text, they don’t always succeed. And they certainly don’t replicate the student’s authentic voice. However, if a student uses word spinners throughout a course, instructors won’t be able to have insights into the student’s authentic writing style and voice.”

Original text run through an older generation word spinner:

“While the objective of word spinners is to hold the significance of the first content, they don't generally succeed. Also, they positively don't reproduce the understudy's credible voice. Be that as it may, if an understudy utilizes word spinners all through a course, teachers will not have the option to have bits of knowledge into the understudy's genuine composing style and voice.”

As you can see, the work of the older generation word spinner is awkward and shows a very obvious shift in command of language.

On the other hand, current AI-powered plagiarism changers produce disturbingly legitimate-looking output. The same text, when paraphrased by an AI-powered paraphrasing tool reads:

“Although word spinners aim to preserve the original text's meaning, they don't always succeed. And they most definitely don't capture the student's true voice. But if a student consistently employs word generators, teachers won't be able to discern the student's true writing voice and style.”

That said, there is certainly an authorial voice shift. When instructors have prior student work with which to compare paraphrasing tool output, it may be very obvious when students use AI-powered plagiarism changers.

AI plagiarism changers, when represented as a student’s own work, is a form of misuse and paraphrasing plagiarism. The act of learning how to paraphrase is an important skill to learn and encompasses the ability to absorb concepts, evaluate them, analyze, and synthesize original thoughts. A dependence on AI paraphrasing tools shortcuts this learning.

Furthermore, when ideas aren’t attributed or cited, the act of paraphrasing constitutes paraphrasing plagiarism; AI paraphrasing tools take advantage of students who aren’t aware of these nuances and market themselves as “plagiarism free.”

Recent versions of AI paraphrasing tools are more sophisticated than ever. And most problematically, can better evade detection and thus, decrease the opportunities for instructor intervention and shortcut student learning. It’s important to be aware of AI-powered paraphrasing tools and ensure that students are producing their own work so that learning outcomes can be accurate and upheld.

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Is it Legal to Use a Paraphrasing Tool to Avoid Plagiarism

Originally published: March 28, 2022 09:35:16 AM, updated: June 14, 2023 10:06:00 AM

Using a free paraphrasing tool can be very helpful when writing content. You can use it to make your content unique. You can also learn new words and see the different ways in which you can structure your sentences.

But, seeing how easy it is to use these tools, you could be a bit worried about whether what you are doing is legal or not. Not to worry. That is what we will discuss in this post.

The Right and Wrong Types of Paraphrasing

There are two types of paraphrasing.

The first type is the one in which the job is done thoroughly, and the final content does not bear a very major resemblance to the original text.

The other type of paraphrasing (and this is the bad kind) is the one in which someone just changes a few words from the original content and then uses it as it is his own.

Of these two types, the first one is legal.

In other words, if a person paraphrases some content then and adequately shares it elsewhere without citing the source, there will be nothing wrong with it.

With this type of content, even if someone were to check Plagiarism, they would not get any type of matches whatsoever. But, with partially paraphrased content, it is important to mention the original author as well.

Is it Legal to Use a Paraphrasing Tool to Avoid Plagiarism?

As we mentioned above, paraphrasing is legal if it is done correctly. With genuine and legitimate paraphrasing, there is no malicious intent involved.

The writer does not aim to use someone else's content as his own wrongfully. He merely wishes to write a certain idea or concept in different words.

However, we should mention that while proper paraphrasing won't be considered Plagiarism, it's not something that you should resort to habitually.

In certain scenarios, it is fine to paraphrase a few paragraphs. But it is not good to adopt this as a permanent practice. A writer should come up with original and unique stuff and not rely on other people's content.

Mind you, there is a significant difference between taking inspiration and paraphrasing. To take inspiration means to learn from some content and then to come up with a completely new and unique way to explain it.

And doing this is completely fine from both aspects: legal and ethical. Without taking inspiration, no one would learn anything.

Recommended video : How to Paraphrase in 5 Easy Steps | Scribbr

How to Use a Free Paraphrasing Tool to Paraphrase Content Properly?

Improperly paraphrased content will not be recognized as unique either by the readers or the search engine. If you don't know how to paraphrase content properly, you need to get familiar with it.

Here is how you can do it in a few simple steps:

Choose a good paraphrasing tool . This part is important. A lot of tools available online will take your content and mess it up…instead of rewording it.

We will look at a few good tools in detail later on, but for now, we can name a few, such as paphraser.io, rephrase.info, searchengingereports.net, etc.

Paraphrase the content . After you have chosen your tool, you will need to use it and rephrase the original text.

Check for errors . Up till now, the two steps mentioned were more or less what you usually have to do when you paraphrase any content.

However, you have to make sure that everything is on point when you want to do it properly. Fixing grammatical and spelling mistakes is the first step to that.

Don't retain the sentence structure . And finally, to make sure that your paraphrased content is not recognizable, you have to change the original structure. You can do this by moving the paragraphs around a bit and breaking the sentences down into smaller parts.

Some changes to the structure will be affected by the paraphraser tool itself, but most of it you will have to do yourself.

If you follow the first two steps of this post only, you will get paraphrased content, but it will not be thorough and complete.

Tools That You Can Try for Paraphrasing Content

The steps discussed above are pretty easy to follow. However, when it comes to choosing the right paraphrasing tool, you could face a hitch.

To help you pick the right tool for your paraphrasing needs, we have come up with this brief list:

Paraphraser.io is a great free paraphrasing tool. It comes with a free version that users can enjoy indefinitely without signing up or registering.

The main reason why we are mentioning this tool at the top of our list is because of its human-like functionality.

We mentioned earlier that there are a lot of tools online that jumble the meaning of the given text and make it mean something completely different than what was intended.

However, Paraphraser.io runs on an exceptional algorithm that allows it to replace certain words with proper synonyms while retaining the original context.

You also get the option of choosing between two different modes (three, if you are a premium user), which include: Fluency, Standard, and Creative (premium only).

Key Features

Free to start
Different modes available
Human-like functionality
Multiple integrated tools

Prepostseo.com is not only a paraphrasing tool. There are a lot of different utilities related to content optimization and SEO that you can use with it. And luckily for us, they also have a paraphraser tool that is available for free.

There are a lot of excellent features on this app as well. For one, it has four different modes, all of which can be enjoyed by free users.

They include Simple, Creative, Advanced, and Fluency. These different modes essentially decide the number and type of changes that will be made to the given text.

The process is quick to complete, and the results can easily be copied.

If you want to use some other tools, like 'Check Plagiarism,' 'Checker Grammar,' and 'Summarize Content,' you can easily do it by clicking on the buttons in the bottom bar.

Free to use all the way
Extra tools available, i.e., plagiarism checker, grammar checker, etc.
Completely web-based
Quick conversion

Plagiarismremover.net has, like the two other tools discussed on this list, multiple utilities that you can use. Their 'Article Rewriter' tool is an excellent paraphraser that is available for free.

We copied some text from a website and paraphrased it using this tool. After paraphrasing, the resulting content did not get recognized as plagiarized.

Plagiarismremover.net offers a decent number of file uploading and language options. As for the process itself, it was fast and only took up a few seconds.

Quick to work
Gave plagiarism-free results
Integrated plagiarism and grammar checking tools
Multiple languages supported

Paraphrasingtool.ai is an advanced online platform that hosts a variety of innovative tools designed to assist writers in creating, modifying, and polishing their content. Its flagship product is a paraphrasing tool with unique features such as audio paraphrasing, four different tonal settings, eight paraphrasing modes, and a speech-to-text paraphrasing capability.

This versatile tool can effortlessly rephrase up to 20,000 characters simultaneously, paving the way for more efficient content production. This tool also has an AI Text Editor enriched with many features.

It can simplify complex sentences, expand upon ideas, convert paragraphs into bullet points, provide examples, and offer explanations, among other features. This streamlines the editing process, making it more intuitive and user-friendly.

In addition to these utilities, Paraphrasingtool.ai also offers a plagiarism checker that can check up to 25,000 words in one go. This tool is invaluable for writers seeking originality and authenticity in their work, allowing them to uphold the highest academic integrity and professionalism standards.

Freemium Tool
Multiple paraphrasing modes
Multiple tones
Multilingual support
Plagiarism checker available
Decent character limit
Multiple input options (Audio paraphrasing, Speech-to-text paraphrasing, and extracting text from images)
AI text editor

What are the key elements of paraphrasing?

The two elements of paraphrasing are:

1. Giving an author credit for their thoughts. 2. Putting these concepts into your own words rather than the authors.

What three steps are involved in paraphrasing?

After reading the original content and understanding it, put it aside. Change the text's structure by altering the introduction, the sentence lengths and/or orders, the starting sentence, etc. Note the key ideas or points using your memory. Don't duplicate the text word for word.

What is not allowed in paraphrasing?

It is not sufficient to just substitute a few words and leave out others when paraphrasing. You must fully comprehend the meaning of the expression before translating it into your own words.

When should you not paraphrase?

Paraphrasing is considered plagiarism if you don't give the original author full credit. If your text is too similar to the original words (even if you cite the source), paraphrasing is considered plagiarism. Quote a sentence or phrase rather than just copy it verbatim.

What to change when paraphrasing?

Don't just take the original sentence and replace some of the terms with synonyms when paraphrasing. Try reformulating the statement instead (for example, switching from active to passive or beginning at a different point) and incorporating details from several phrases into one.

Paraphrasing any content properly can take time, but it is worth it. Keep in mind that you must give credit through a citation for the author's original idea when paraphrasing.

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Frequently asked questions

Is paraphrasing considered plagiarism.

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 referencing 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.

Frequently asked questions: Paraphrasing Tool

The act of putting someone else’s ideas or words into your own words is called paraphrasing, rephrasing, or rewording. Even though they are often used interchangeably, the terms can mean slightly different things:

Paraphrasing is restating someone else’s ideas or words in your own words while retaining their meaning. Paraphrasing changes sentence structure, word choice, and sentence length to convey the same meaning.

Rephrasing may involve more substantial changes to the original text, including changing the order of sentences or the overall structure of the text.

Rewording is changing individual words in a text without changing its meaning or structure, often using synonyms.

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Original article
Open access
Published: 26 January 2017

Using Internet based paraphrasing tools: Original work, patchwriting or facilitated plagiarism?

Ann M. Rogerson 1 &
Grace McCarthy 1

International Journal for Educational Integrity volume 13 , Article number: 2 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

76k Accesses

59 Citations

167 Altmetric

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A casual comment by a student alerted the authors to the existence and prevalence of Internet-based paraphrasing tools. A subsequent quick Google search highlighted the broad range and availability of online paraphrasing tools which offer free ‘services’ to paraphrase large sections of text ranging from sentences, paragraphs, whole articles, book chapters or previously written assignments. The ease of access to online paraphrasing tools provides the potential for students to submit work they have not directly written themselves, or in the case of academics and other authors, to rewrite previously published materials to sidestep self-plagiarism. Students placing trust in online paraphrasing tools as an easy way of complying with the requirement for originality in submissions are at risk in terms of the quality of the output generated and possibly of not achieving the learning outcomes as they may not fully understand the information they have compiled. There are further risks relating to the legitimacy of the outputs in terms of academic integrity and plagiarism. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the existence, development, use and detection of use of Internet based paraphrasing tools. To demonstrate the dangers in using paraphrasing tools an experiment was conducted using some easily accessible Internet-based paraphrasing tools to process part of an existing publication. Two sites are compared to demonstrate the types of differences that exist in the quality of the output from certain paraphrasing algorithms, and the present poor performance of online originality checking services such as Turnitin® to identify and link material processed via machine based paraphrasing tools. The implications for student skills in paraphrasing, academic integrity and the clues to assist staff in identifying the use of online paraphrasing tools are discussed.

Introduction

A casual question from a student regarding another student’s contribution to a group work assignment inadvertently led to an explanation of some unusual text submitted for assessment in a previous session. The student queried whether the use of a paraphrasing tool was acceptable in the preparation of a written submission for assessment. Discussing the matter further, the student revealed that they had queried the writing provided by one member of the group as their contribution to the report “did not make sense”. When asked, the group member stated that they had taken material from a journal article and used a fee free Internet paraphrasing tool “so that the words were not the same as the original to avoid plagiarism”. After the clarification, the group did not accept the submission from their team member and instead worked with them to develop an original submission. The group were thanked for their approach to the situation; however this revelation provided a potential explanation for some analogous submissions for previous subjects.

One particular submission from a previous subject instance had phrasing that included “constructive employee execution” and “worker execution audits” for an assessment topic on employee performance reviews. The student was interviewed at the time about why they had submitted work relating the words execution and employees and no satisfactory or plausible explanation was provided. With a new awareness of paraphrasing tools, a Google search revealed in excess of 500,000 hits and a simple statement was entered into one tool to test this connection. Testing the phrase ‘employee performance reviews’ via the top search response revealed an explanation for the unusual student submission as the paraphrase was returned as ‘representative execution surveys’. Choosing to use output generated by these tools begs the question – is it original work, patchwriting or facilitated plagiarism?

Having had our attention drawn to the existence and use of paraphrasing tools it was decided to investigate the phenomenon. What became apparent was that the ease of access to and use of such tools was greater than first thought. Consequently it is important to bring the use and operation of paraphrasing tools to a wider audience to encourage discussion about developing individual writing skills and improve the detection of these emerging practices, thereby raising awareness for students, teachers and institutions.

Paraphrasing and patchwriting

Academic writing is largely reliant on the skill of paraphrasing to demonstrate that the author can capture the essence of what they have read, they understand what they have read and can use the appropriately acknowledged evidence in support of their responses (Fillenbaum, 1970 ; Keck, 2006 , 2014 ; Shi, 2012 ). In higher education a student’s attempts at paraphrasing can provide “insight into how well students read as well as write” (Hirvela & Du, 2013 , p.88). While there appears to be an underlying assumption that students and researchers understand and accept that there is a standard convention about how to paraphrase and appropriately use and acknowledge source texts (Shi, 2012 ), there can be inconsistencies between underlying assumptions in how paraphrases are identified, described and assessed (Keck, 2006 ). Poorer forms of paraphrasing tend to use a simplistic approach where some words are simply replaced with synonyms found through functionality available in word processing software or online dictionaries. This is a form of superficial paraphrasing or ‘close paraphrasing’ (Keck, 2010 ) or ‘patchwriting’ (Howard, 1995 ). The question as to “the exact degree to which text must be modified to be classified as correctly paraphrased” (Roig, 2001 , p.309) is somewhat vague, although Keck ( 2006 ) outlined a Taxonomy of Paraphrase Types where paraphrases are classified in four categories ranging from near copy to substantial revision based on the number of unique links or strings of words.

Research in this area appears to concentrate more specifically on second language (L2) students rather than students per se (For a review see Cumming et al. 2016 ) although many native English writers may also lack the language skills to disseminate academic discourse in their own voice (Bailey & Challen, 2015 ). Paraphrasing is a skill that transcends the written form as it is actually a communication strategy required for all language groups in interpersonal or intergroup interactions and includes oral (Rabab’ah, 2016 ) and visual forms (Chen et al. 2015a ). Paraphrasing allows the same idea to be expressed in different ways as appropriate for the intended audience. It can also be used for persuasion (Suchan, 2014 ), explanations (Patil & Karekatti, 2015 ) and support (Bodie et al. 2016 ). In coaching, paraphrasing is used to ensure that the coach has correctly understood what the coachee is saying, thus allowing the coachee to further clarify their meaning (McCarthy, 2014 ).

Online writing tools

The prevalence and easy access to digital technologies and Internet-based sources have shifted “the way knowledge is constructed, shared and evaluated” (Evering & Moorman, 2012 , p.36). However the quality, efficacy, validity and reliability of some Internet-based material is questionable from an educational standpoint (Niño, 2009 ). Internet-based paraphrasing tools are text processing applications and associated with the same approaches used for machine translation (MT). While MT usually focusses on the translation of one language to another, the broader consideration of text processing can operate between or within language corpuses (Ambati et al. 2010 ).

Internet-based conversion and translation tools are easily accessible, and a number of versions are available to all without cost (Somers, 2012 ). Developments in the treatment of translating natural language as a machine learning problem (known as statistical machine translation - SMT) are leading to continual improvements in this field although the linguistic accuracy varies based on the way each machine ‘learns’ (Lopez, 2008 ). The free tools available via the Internet lack constant updates and improvements as the code is controlled by webmasters and not by experts in MT (Carter & Inkpen, 2012 ). This means advances in methods and algorithms are not always available to individuals relying on free Internet based tools. Consequently there are issues with the quality of MT which may require a level of post-editing to correct the raw output so that it is fit for purpose (Inaba et al. 2007 ).

Post-editing of an online output may be problematic or difficult for an individual with a low level of proficiency in the language they are being taught or assessed in as grammatical inaccuracies and awkward phrasing cannot be easily identified and therefore corrected (Niño, 2009 ). Where a student is considered to lack the necessary linguistic skills, the errors or inaccuracies may be interpreted by assessors as a student having a poor understanding of academic writing conventions rather than recognising that a student may not have written the work themselves. Where an academic is working in an additional language, they may find the detection of the errors or inaccuracies more difficult to identify.

Nor is the issue of paraphrasing or article spinning tool use confined to students. Automated article spinners perform the same way as paraphrasing tools, where text is entered into one field with a ‘spun’ output provided on the same webpage. They were initially developed for re-writing web content to maximise exposure and links to particular sites, without being detected as a duplicate of original content (Madera et al. 2014 ). The underlying purpose appears to allow website owners to “make money from the new, but not strictly original, article” (Lancaster & Clarke, 2009 ). These sites are freely available to students leading to a new label covering the use of these tools as ‘essay spinning’ (Lancaster & Clarke, 2009 , p.26). However, these spinning tools are equally available to academics who may be enticed with the notion of repurposing already published content as a way of increasing research output.

Although the quality levels of MT output varies widely, careful editing and review can address the errors further disguising the original source material (Somers, 2012 ). Roig ( 2016 ) highlights that some forms of text recycling are normal in academic life such as converting conference presentations and theses to journal articles and the textual reuse between editions of books, as long as there is appropriate acknowledgement of the original source. However Roig also points out that authors should be concerned about reusing previous work as with technological advances it will not be long before all forms of academic written work can “be easily identified, retrieved, stored and processed in ways that are inconceivable at the present time” (Roig, 2016 , p.665).

The fact remains that taking another author’s work, processing it through an online paraphrasing tool then submitting that work as ‘original’ is not original work where it involves the use of source texts and materials without acknowledgement. The case of a student submitting work generated by an online tool without appropriate acknowledgement could be considered as a form of plagiarism, and the case of academics trying to reframe texts for alternate publications could be considered as a form of self-plagiarism. Both scenarios could be considered as ‘facilitated plagiarism’ where an individual actively seeks to use some form of easily accessible Internet-based source to prepare or supplement submission material for assessment by others (Granitz, 2007 ; Scanlon & Neumann, 2002 ; Stamatatos, 2011 ). Applying technology to identify where the paraphrasing tools have been used is difficult as detection moves beyond text summarisation and matching to comparison of meaning and evaluation of machine translation (Socher et al. 2011 ).

Furthermore, students using an online paraphrasing system fail to demonstrate their understanding of the assessment task and hence fail to provide evidence of achieving learning outcomes. If they do not acknowledge the source of the text which they have put through the paraphrasing tool, they are also guilty of academic misconduct. On both counts, they would not merit a pass in the subject for which they submit such material.

Methodology

In order to test the quality of output generated by some free Internet based paraphrasing tools and how the originality of the output is assessed by Turnitin®, the following experiment was conducted. A paragraph from an existing publication by this article’s authors from a prior edition of the International Journal of Educations Integrity (IJEI) was selected to be the original source material (McCarthy & Rogerson, 2009 , p.49). To assess how a paraphrasing tool processes an in-text citation, one in-text citation was included (Thatcher, 2008 ). A set of three bibliographic entries from the reference list of the same article were also selected to test how references are interpreted.

As students are more likely to use Google as the Internet search engine of choice and rely on results near the top of page (Spievak & Hayes-Bohanan, 2016 ), this approach was used to identify and select some online paraphrasing tools for testing. The selected paragraph (including the in-text citation), and the selected references were entered into the first two hits on a Google search on www.google.com.au for ‘ paraphrasing tools ’. Consequently the sites used for the experiment were www.paraphrasing-tool.com (Tool 1) and www.goparaphrase.com (Tool 2).

The next step was to compare the outputs from the original journal article material to the outputs of Tool 1 and Tool 2. Exact matches to the original text were observed, tagged and highlighted in grey. Matches between the two paraphrasing outputs that did not match the original source were highlighted by placing the relevant text in a box. Contractions and unusual matches were highlighted by double underlining the text. For the first set of comparisons (paragraph with an in-text citation) the following summary characteristics were calculated: total word counts, total word matches and percentage of similarity to the original paragraph.

In order to identify how Turnitin® interpreted the paragraph and bibliographic outputs from the paraphrasing tools, the original source material and two paraphrasing outputs were uploaded to Turnitin® to check whether the journal publication could be identified. Turnitin® comprises a suite of online educative writing and evaluation tools where assessment tasks can be uploaded, checked and assessed ( www.turnitin.com ). It can be accessed via the Internet or through an interface with an institutional learning management system (LMS). The originality checking area compares a submission against a range of previously published materials and a database of previously submitted assignments. The system generates an originality report where text that matches closely to a previously published or submitted source is highlighted by colour and number with links provided to publicly accessible materials. Matches to papers submitted at other institutions cannot be accessed without the express permission of the owning institution. As Baggaley and Spencer note ( 2005 ) Turnitin® originality reports require careful analysis, for the reports identify text “which may or may not have been correctly attributed” (Baggaley & Spencer, 2005 , p. 56) and cannot be used as the sole determinant of whether or not a work is plagiarised or if source materials have been inappropriately used (Rogerson, 2014 ).

A separate Turnitin® assessment file was created for the experiment on an institutional academic integrity LMS site (Moodle) where a bank of dummy student profiles is available for testing purposes. Three dummy student accounts were used to load the individual ‘outputs’ under two assignment parts. The uploads included one instance of the source material in order to generate comparative originality reports for both the paragraph outputs (loaded under part 1) and the reference list outputs (loaded under part 2). For both sets of outputs the overall Turnitin® similarity percentages and document matches were reviewed for comparison purposes.

The highlighted comparisons of the paragraph outputs are presented in Fig. 1 (comparing Tool 1) and Fig. 2 (comparing Tool 2). The summary characteristics for the paragraph outputs are presented in Table 1 .

Comparison with output from www.paraphrasing-tool.com . Original source materials from McCarthy and Rogerson ( 2009 , p.49) and citing Thatcher ( 2008 )

Comparison with www.goparaphrase.com . Original source materials from McCarthy and Rogerson ( 2009 , p.49) and citing Thatcher ( 2008 )

There are obvious differences in how the online paraphrasing tools have reengineered the original work based on the number of identifiable matches between the original and output texts. For example there are differences in how words such as plagiarism are expressed (Original source: plagiarism ; Tool 1: copyright infringement ; Tool 2: counterfeit ). Both tools have used additional words (Tool 1: additional five words; Tool 2: additional 20 words). The output from Tool 1 has used 77 words or 50% of the words in the original paragraph but these were predominately coordinating conjunctions. Tool 1 has followed the correct use of capitalisations in all words and sentences, however Tool 2 has not capitalised words such as English, and Chinese, but did capitalise seven random words mid-sentence ( Audit, Numerous, Concerning, Likewise, Taking, and What’s ). In addition Tool 2 used contractions ( doesn’t ) and the words ‘ can have ’ in the original have been reprocessed to ‘ camwood ’.

The highlighted comparisons of the reference section outputs are presented in Fig. 3 (comparing the original source with Tool 1 and Tool 2). The summary characteristics of the Turnitin® results for the reference section outputs are presented in Table 2 .

Comparison with three reference list entries. Original source materials from McCarthy and Rogerson ( 2009 , p.56) and citing Carroll and Appleton ( 2005 ), Crisp ( 2007 ), and Dahl ( 2007 )

The Turnitin® results for both the paragraph and reference list uploads identified the original source as 100% match to the online location of the journal supporting Turnitin’s® claim in relation to identifying legitimate academic resources. What is of concern is Turnitin’s® apparent inability to identify the similarities evident by a manual comparison of the source and outputs. Figures 1 and 2 demonstrate the similarities between the original source materials and the output of the tools yet the similarity percentages noted in Table 2 indicate that the re-engineered paragraphs are not detected. One of the current limitations of Turnitin® is that it can detect some but not all cases of synonym replacement (Menai, 2012 ). Despite the patterned nature of the text matching identified through a visual examination of the output, the machine-based originality similarity checking software continues to have limitations in identifying materials that appear to be plagiarised through the use of an online paraphrasing tool or language translation application.

Turnitin® was more successful in matching up bibliographic data to the original source. This was likely due to the fact that the paraphrasing tools did not alter (or barely altered) long strings of numbers, letters and website URLs. The higher Turnitin® match to the output from Tool 1 (72% similarity) was due to the retention of most of the journal name ( International replaced with Global ) however the author name ‘ Crisp’ was altered to ‘ Fresh’ . The output from Tool 2 retained the authors’ last names, but added in 11 additional words to replace author Dahl’s first initial of ‘S’ which would have affected the calculation of similarity percentage. It is interesting that the change to lower case for authors’ initials appeared to impact on Turnitin’s® capacity to identify the authors in the first reference and missed the end of the journal details in the third reference, which also would have contributed to the lower similarity percentage. This led to Turnitin® overlooking 15 word matches and 13 other number and character matches in the Tool 2 submission that were identified as direct matches in the Tool 1 output.

A further examination of both sets of outputs from the paraphrasing tools identified that the tools appear to retain most words and formatting close to punctuation. For example both tools retained [ , policed, ], and the name and intext citation [Thatcher ( 2008 )] in the paragraph comparison, and a string in the reference section comparison [ Integrity, 3, 3–15, from http://www . ]. Without knowing the algorithms for the paraphrasing tools or Turnitin®, patterns such as these can only be observed rather than analysed.

The outputs and comparisons presented in Figs. 1 and 2 appear more like patchwriting rather than paraphrasing. Li and Casanave ( 2012 ) argue that patchwriting is an indication that the student is a novice writer still learning how to write and understand the “complexities of appropriate textual borrowing” (Li & Casanave, 2012 , p.177) although their study was confined to L2 students submitting assessment material in English. They further argue that deeming text as patchwriting does not attract the same negative connotations of plagiarism nor would it attract the same penalties. In our examples the patterns of text, language and phrasing can identify a student requiring learning support. This determination is likely due to the presence of poor expression, grammatical errors and areas of confused meaning which are sometimes referred to as a ‘word salad’. The term word salad is drawn from psychology but has been adopted in areas such as MT to classify unintelligible and random collections of words and phrases (Definition:word salad, 2016 ). Word salads are produced by MT “when translation engines fail to do a complete analysis of their input” (Callison-Burch & Flournoy, 2001 , p.1).

While the output from Tool 1 is mainly intelligible, some of the results from Tool 2 could be classified as word salads, for example in the last line the following string of words was produced ‘ duplicating Likewise an approach about Taking in starting with What's more paying admiration to previous aces’ . If an unintelligible string of words was submitted as part of an assessment task it may be a reason to have a conversation with a student to understand how they are going about their writing, and to determine if paraphrasing tools or article spinners have contributed. Where a citation is provided, it may be a case of a student having a poor understanding of academic writing conventions. Where there is no citation or any reference to the original source the situation may warrant investigation under academic integrity institutional policies and procedures.

If the percentage calculations presented in Fig. 1 are compared with Kecks ( 2006 ) Taxonomy of Paraphrase Types , the outputs from the online tools would fall into the category of paraphrases with minimal revision when compared to the original text (Keck, 2014 , p.9). The manual comparison of documents in this experiment indicates a level of patchwriting, however Turnitin® could not establish a relationship between the original source paragraph and the machine generated paraphrasing-tool outputs. It is more akin to some of the plagiarism behaviours described by Walker ( 1998 , p.103) such as “illicit paraphrasing” where material is reused without any source acknowledgement or even “sham paraphrasing” where text is directly copied but includes a source acknowledgement. This is a cause for concern as the comparison with the online paraphrasing tool output was only possible as the original source was known. It is not just a question of percentages but in the patterns clearly visible in Figs. 1 , 2 and 3 . Consequently, this set of experiments indicates a level of similarity that is concerning in two key areas, firstly where the original source is not acknowledged or identifiable, and secondly if this level of similarity were found in student work, it would suggest that the student may not have understood the material, or at least that he/she has not demonstrated their understanding.

Manual analysis and academic judgement are integral parts of the process of detection of plagiarised materials (Bretag & Mahmud, 2009b ), and are heavily reliant on the level of experience an assessor has in identifying clues, markers and textual patterns (Rogerson & Bassanta, 2016 ). In this experiment the original source of the plagiarised materials would be difficult to identify, however the presence of clues and patterns may be sufficient to motivate a lecturer or tutor to initiate an initial conversation with a student to determine whether the work is actually the student’s own (Somers et al. 2006 ).

A further investigation of the results from the Google search on ‘paraphrasing tools’ identified that many of the sites have multiple public faces—that is that there are additional URLs that direct users back to the same paraphrasing machine. The purpose behind the existence of the sites is not clear. The sites do carry Internet advertising so their existence and multiple faces may be related to a way to generate income. Alarmingly the sites examined in this study showed advertisements for higher education institutions which could be misinterpreted by users as tacit approval for the sites and their output. Other sites highlight that rudimentary paraphrasing tools are highly inaccurate but promote their paid services to correct the output—i.e. a process that could be interpreted as another form of contracted plagiarism (Clarke & Lancaster, 2013 ).

One of the questions that arises in assessing work as plagiarised is associated with intentionality—that is, did the person intend to deceive another about the originality of work (Lee, 2016 ). In the case of students “it is the inappropriate research and writing practices and the resulting misappropriate or misuse of information that leads students to breach academic integrity expectations” (Pfannenstiel, 2010 , p.43). Pfannenstiel’s use of the word ‘expectations’ is both interesting and enlightening as it is probable that differences in expectations is what is at the crux of the issue with online paraphrasing or article spinning tools. Expectations can be influenced by cultural and educational backgrounds, a lack of understanding or skills in paraphrasing and linguistic and language resources (Cumming et al., 2016 ; Sun, 2012 ). For example: a student may sincerely believe that as they have not submitted an exact copy of the original source, and that there is no evidence of match to the original source via online originality checking software that they have met the objective of submitting original work. Conversely, an academic may reasonably consider this to be direct plagiarism as the student copied the original work of someone else and reused it without any acknowledgement (Davis & Morley, 2015 ). This area of confusion was noted in Shi’s ( 2012 ) study where a student stated that using a translation of an original text did not require acknowledgment of the original source as the translation was not directly the original source. (Shi, 2012 , p.140).

While Turnitin® cannot currently connect the writing and the paraphrases in this experiment, it and other MT tools are in a constant state of evolution and their ability to identify poor quality machine translated text will continue to improve over time (Carter & Inkpen, 2012 ). In order to test the progress, Carter and Inkpen ( 2012 ) suggest that multiple tests of the same piece of text be conducted over a period of years to measure both the quality of output and the ability to detect their use. The literature reviewed in this area focusses on the detection of phrases and sentences, with Socher et al. ( 2011 ) noting that once detection switches from phrases to full sentences a comparison of meaning is more difficult for a machine to learn.

This article does not attempt to outline all the work being undertaken in this area, instead it highlights that there is research being undertaken to develop and further enhance MT (encoding and decoding) and detection of MT use. This includes computers learning computational semantics and managing expanded vocabularies to move beyond recognition of specific tasks (Kiros et al., 2015 ). Turnitin®’s ability to match large sections of text outside of their own repository of previously submitted assessment tasks is very useful because the majority of academic materials that can be plagiarised are text based (Bretag & Mahmud, 2009a ). Using text-matching as a basis for detection instead of semantic matching means that uses of online paraphrasing tools and article spinners continues to be difficult for technology to detect at this time. Therefore for the foreseeable future the onus of detection of unoriginal material remains with academics, lecturers and teachers (Rogerson, 2014 ).

Further confusion arises when institutions develop computer based paraphrasing tools as a way of developing English language writing skills for L2 students. Aware of the difficulties that L2 learners have with paraphrasing tasks, Chen, Huang, Chang and Liou developed a web and corpus based ‘paraphrasing assistant system’ designed to suggest paraphrases with corresponding Chinese translations (Chen et al. 2015b , p.23). Students familiar with using such a system in their home country may seek similar assistance if studying abroad. Without access to an approved technology they may seek to discover similar assistance tools on the Internet—where they can easily locate the paraphrasing tools identified in this experiment. These same students may also lack the judgement skills to discern the difference between the output from approved and poor quality online tools whether they are paraphrasing tools, article spinners or language translators.

Implications for practice: working with students

One way of confronting or approaching this issue is to openly demonstrate to students the errors and inaccuracies that can result in using online tools (Niño, 2009 ). Communicating proactively about the issue provides students with a greater awareness of the problems that can result from using online paraphrasing sites as well as ensuring that students understand that they should not expect to graduate unless they can demonstrate they understand the course material. Their current and future employers have the right to expect that for example, a student graduating with a degree in marketing will be able to articulate their understanding of marketing concepts. Proactive approaches can also promote learning development and support services offered by the educational institution providing students with advice about paraphrasing and strategies for improving their writing skills and therefore avoiding problematic practices. This educates students about alternatives to using online machine text generation tools.

Some students have expressed concerns that other students will continue to take advantage of technology based aids even though they had been told not to use them and knowing that to do so could be classified as cheating (Burnett et al. 2016 ). Students who do not cheat but put in the effort themselves are usually outraged if fellow students get away with cheating and may even bring cases they notice to the institutions’ attention (Warnock, 2006 ). This was the case with the casual comment by the student who brought the online paraphrasing tools to our attention. The actions of our students working with their group member to develop their own work also demonstrates how honest students can be allies in upholding the academic standards of the institution (Bretag & Mahmud, 2016 ). If the benefits of learning and developing individual paraphrasing skills are linked to the broader benefits of effective interpersonal and intergroup communication, the open approach to confronting and discussing the issue may be more successful.

Implications for practice: working with staff

The development of reading, summarising and paraphrasing skills are not the sole responsibility of learning developers. Educators need to embed academic skills in lectures and tutorials and provide feedback on student progress measured through effective assessment (Sambell et al. 2013 ). Clear assessment requirements and use of rubrics indicate the importance and differences to grades for the various levels of academic skills (Atkinson & Lim, 2013 ) providing students with a reason to develop their skills. Effective feedback assists students in identifying where they have achieved certain levels of academic skills and which skills require further development (Evans, 2013 ).

A further approach to tackling the issue is to re-design assessment tasks to include an oral component where the student has to present a summary of their argument and answer questions. This approach can ensure that the student understands and has achieved the learning outcomes, although it is no guarantee of the student’s academic integrity in preparing for their presentation. Finally, academics can also be trained to look for linguistic markers indicating the possibility of the use of such online paraphrasing tools so that they can investigate cases appropriately. Such markers include sentences that do not make sense, odd use of capitalisations in the middle of sentences, unusual phrases and, in the case where students have reprocessed work from old textbooks, out of date and superseded reference material.

Conclusion and recommendations for further research

This study has demonstrated that students can use online paraphrasing tools or article spinners in ways that avoid detection by originality checking software such as Turnitin®. Whether or not it is the student’s intent to avoid plagiarism is not the issue examined here. Rather, the intent of this paper is to ensure that those involved in teaching and learning are aware of the practice, can detect its use and initiate meaningful conversations with students about the perils of using such tools. There is a fine line between use of paraphrasing tools and the use of tools to plagiarise, however it is only through open discussion that students will learn to appreciate the benefits of articulating their understanding in their own words with the appropriate acknowledgement of sources.

Paraphrasing is a skill that transcends an ability to interpret and restate an idea or concept in writing. It is an important skill that needs to be introduced and developed in terms of written, visual and oral forms. The capacity of students and academics to rephrase, frame and restate the ideas and intentions of original authors themselves with appropriate acknowledgements of sources is fundamental to the principles of academic integrity and personal development. The proliferation of fee-based and free Internet-based tools designed to re-engineer text is a concern. Of greater concern is that tools contracted to identify original source materials cannot necessarily be used at this time to identify where writing has been repurposed. Regardless of the ease of access to online text regeneration tools and the work being done to try to electronically detect their use, individuals should be encouraged to improve their own paraphrasing expertise as an essential part of individual skill development in and beyond educational institutions.

Further work is needed to identify linguistic markers indicating use of online paraphrasing tools such as those identified in this study. Academics are already time poor and while they may be strongly in favour of upholding academic standards, they may also be reluctant to undertake time-consuming investigations into possible misconduct. They need encouragement to integrate the observation of textual patterns and markers into their grading and assessment practice. Research is also needed in exploring the most effective techniques or combination of educational, deterrent and punitive techniques and machine detection tools to combat the use of online paraphrasing tools and article spinners and other forms of academic malpractice. Such developments will assist in directing the focus of writing efforts back to where it should be – which is individuals writing and submitting their own work with appropriate acknowledgements.

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Rogerson, A.M., McCarthy, G. Using Internet based paraphrasing tools: Original work, patchwriting or facilitated plagiarism?. Int J Educ Integr 13 , 2 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-016-0013-y

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Academic Integrity at MIT

A handbook for students, search form, avoiding plagiarism - paraphrasing.

In writing papers, you will paraphrase more than you will quote. For a report or research paper, you may need to gather background information that is important to the paper but not worthy of direct quotation. Indeed, in technical writing direct quotation is rarely used.

Exactly what does "paraphrase" mean?

It means taking the words of another source and restating them, using your own vocabulary. In this way, you keep the meaning of the original text, but do not copy its exact wording.

What strategies can I use to paraphrase?

Use synonyms for all words that are not generic. Words like world, food, or science are so basic to our vocabulary that is difficult to find a synonym.

Change the structure of the sentence.

Change the voice from active to passive and vice versa.

Change clauses to phrases and vice versa.

Change parts of speech.

A good paraphrase combines a number of strategies: the goal is to rephrase the information so that it appears in your words, not those of the author.

Example 4: Using Multiple Strategies to Paraphrase

Example 5: Unacceptable Paraphrase

How to Avoid Plagiarism

Defining Plagiarism
Proper vs. Improper Paraphrasing
Writing Skills

Improper Paraphrasing

Improper paraphrasing is a very common form of plagiarism. This occurs when one lifts a direct phrase from another work and changes just a few words - and then claims the work as wholly their own. Learning how to properly paraphrase is a very important component of good writing. But, remember, just because you have properly paraphrased does not mean that you do not need to cite the source of the original idea. Paraphrasing is simply a way of putting someone else's ideas into your own words - it does not make the idea your own.

Examples of Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is when you take an original idea from an author's work and reword, or rephrase, it so that the words are your own. It is important to remember that no matter how successful you are at paraphrasing, only the words are your own. When you paraphrase you must give credit through a citation for the author's original idea.

Original Phrase

"Western law begins with two major subgroups. One contains the legal systems of the European continent. Although there are many differences among European legal systems, they are all descended from the law of the Roman Empire and were influenced by the procedures of Medieval Roman Catholic canon law."

Dorothy H. Bracey, Exploring Law and Culture 31 (2006).

If you want to use this exact language in a paper, or any other work for a course, you must use quotation marks and provide a citation. If you want to use the idea, but not necessarily the author's words, you can paraphrase - but remember, you need to really need to explain the idea in your own words for it to be properly paraphrased; and don't forget the citation!

Western law has two major subgroups. One is the legal systems of Europe. There are differences between the European legal systems, but they are all descended from the Roman Empire and influenced by the procedures of the Medieval Roman Catholic law.

With or without a citation, the above phrase is plagiarism. Changing a few words and omitting others is not enough for proper paraphrasing. You must really understand what the phrase means and then put it in your own words.

Proper Paraphrasing

At first glance, it can seem like the legal traditions of European countries are all very different. However, as part of one of the larger subgroups of Western law, European legal systems largely share a common origin in the Roman Empire and Medieval Roman Catholic Church law.

This is an example of proper paraphrasing (and citation). The original phrase has been reworded and the original idea is being attributed to the original author.

Help With Paraphrasing

If you feel like you need help with paraphrasing, there are some very good resources online. Purdue University has an online writing lab (the OWL) that offers tips on how to paraphrase as well as a quiz to see if you really understand how to paraphrase. This is an important skill to practice in order to avoid plagiarism.

Purdue's OWL instructions on how to paraphrase
Purdue's OWL paraphrase exercise

Checklist From the OWL

6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing

Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.
Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.
Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source.
Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.

Taken from Purdue Online Writing Lab, Paraphrase: Write It in Your Own Words

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Citation Guide

Citation Basics
Quoting, Paraphrasing, Summarizing & Patchwriting

Citation Manuals

Visit your local library or speak to a librarian how to get access to a citation manual.

This guide will direct you to information and resources on using different citation styles for your course projects.

In this guide you will find generic information about the importance of citing your sources , different citation styles you may be asked to use, and links to helpful plagiarism and citation related resources . You will also find useful information on how to incorporate resources into your paper using quotes, paraphrases and summaries , as well as information on patchwriting and how to avoid it.

Already know what citation style you need to use? Use the navigation tabs on the left to jump to the guide for that style and find the information you need.

Have questions or need further assistance? Contact a librarian!

Citation Styles

What are citation styles.

Citation styles are specific methods of formatting research papers and projects and citing sources to give appropriate credit to authors for their ideas and work.

Common Citation Styles

The two main citation styles you are likely to use in your courses are MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association).

Additional citation styles you may use include Chicago, and AMA (American Medical Association).

Plagiarism & Citations

Why is citing important.

Citing is important because it...

Shows your readers you've done proper research into your topic
Allows readers to track down the sources you used
Shows you are a responsible scholar who gives credit to other researchers and acknowledges their ideas
Allows you to avoid plagiarism and the associated consequences when you use another's words or ideas

(adapted from Overview - Citing sources - LibGuides at MIT Libraries )

What do I Need to Cite?

(adapted from UT Arlington Acknowledging Sources tutorial and with permission from Purdue University Online Writing Lab - Plagiarism FAQs)

Check out Purdue OWL's "Should I Cite This?" flow-chart for help deciding if something should be cited.

What is Common Knowledge?

Definitions.

Common knowledge is generally understood to be any information that the average, educated person would know or accept as true without needing to look it up.

The Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning defines common knowledge as information "that most educated people know or can find out easily in an encyclopedia or dictionary."

Purdue OWL says that common knowledge refers to information that can be found uncited in at least 5 reliable sources.

Types of Common Knowledge

In keeping with the definitions of "common knowledge" above, there are three main categories that common knowledge could fall into:

A tomato is a fruit.
Seoul is the capital of Korea.
Einstein's theory of relativity or E=MC 2 (energy = mass x the speed of light squared)
The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the famous "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington D.C.
Kamala Harris was the first woman to be elected Vice-President of the United States.
In astronomy, it is widely known that black holes are the result of stars that go supernova.
In psychology,
In literature, it's common knowledge that Frankenstein is not the name of the monster, but the name of the scientist who created the monster.

(inspired from What is Common Knowledge? | Academic Integrity at MIT )

Questions to Consider

Since the concept of "common knowledge" is so broad consider the following questions when deciding whether to cite something that could be considered common knowledge in your work:

If yes, the information might be considered common knowledge.
If no, the information is likely not considered common knowledge and should be cited.
If you're writing for an audience of experts in the field, you might be able to consider a basic piece of discipline-specific information common knowledge.
If you're writing for a general audience, you should not consider the information common knowledge and cite your source.
If the information is considered foundational in your field it can likely be considered common knowledge.
If you're reader might be surprised by your statement or it could be refuted by other sources it's probably not considered common knowledge and you should cite your source.

(adapted from What Is Common Knowledge? | Definition & Examples (scribbr.com) )

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is when you intentionally or unintentionally use another person's words or ideas without giving them proper credit (i.e. citing them) and pass off their ideas or words as your own. At it's most basic level, plagiarism is intellectual theft.

The CSCU Student Code of Conduct defines plagiarism as "the submission of work by a student for academic credit as one’s own work of authorship which contains work of another author without appropriate attribution."

Examples of Plagiarism

(adapted with permission, Purdue University Online Writing Lab - Plagiarism FAQs)

What are the Consequences of Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is a very serious offense and depending on the intent and level of plagiarism you could face consequences ranging from relatively minor to severe. If you are found to have plagiarized, some possible consequences you might face include:

A failing grade on the assignment
A failure for the course
Being put on academic probation
Being suspended or expelled from the college
If you plagiarize outside the college environment you could be fired from your job or face legal action against you

See the CSCU Student Code of Conduct beginning on page 25 for more information on disciplinary procedures and sanctions at CT State Community College.

How Can I Avoid Plagiarism?

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to ALWAYS cite your sources , whether you're quoting a source directly, paraphrasing, or summarizing words, or ideas from another person or entity. Both in-text citations and works-cited entries are always necessary. Below are some specific tips on avoiding plagiarism:

Use quotation marks when using the same exact words from your source
Longer quotations (generally more than 3 sentences) are typically NOT put in quotation marks but indented on a separate line. Check the appropriate style gudie (MLA, APA, etc.) for proper formatting.
Always include both an in-text and works-cited citation

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

To correctly paraphrase or summarize, the wording AND sentence structure must be changed to reflect your own understanding of the information
Give explicit credit to ALL sources you took ideas, information, or language from regardless of the initial format (written, audio-visual, graphic, etc.).
Clearly differentiate between your own ideas and any thoughts or information borrowed from another source by including in-text citations in the appropriate locations
Make sure your in-text citations and works cited page (also known as reference list or bibliography) are properly formatted according to your citation style. Use our citation style guides to check your formatting. Ask a librarian if you have questions.
Always include both in-text citations and a works-cited page listing all sources used

(adapted from Plagiarism - Academic Integrity & Plagiarism - LibGuides at Kwantlen Polytechnic University )

Additional Resources

for Citations
for Plagiarism

General Resources

Purdue OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) has thorough information on writing and citing sources using different citation styles, avoiding plagiarism, and guidelines on writing for different purposes.
Excelsior OWL The Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL) has information on the writing and research process, and frequently used citation styles, among other resources.
WorldCat WorldCat is a global, online library catalog you can use to locate resources and find bibliographic information for citations.

Citation Generators

*Be cautious when using a citation generator! Citation generators are machines that take the available information and format it into a citation using the indictated style (i.e. MLA, APA, etc.). Since they are automated, they can be prone to error including missing information or mistakes in formatting like missing punctuation or italicis. As such, you should ALWAYS double check the citation generated by a machine and make sure it's accurate yourself. Use the resources available in our citation guides to check the correctness of a citation or ask a librarian for help.

For more information, see Purdue OWL's guide on Using Citation Generators Responsibly.

Citation Machine Citation Machine is an online citation generator you can use to create citations in MLA, APA, and other formats. It also has a tool that will check your paper for plagiarism.
KnightCite An online citation generator maintained by Hekman Library of Calvin University in Michigan.
ZoteroBib ZoteroBib is a free, open-sourced tool that helps you build a bibliography and create in-text citations from any computer or device, without creating an account or installing any software.
How to Recognize Plagiarism tutorial (Indiana University) A comprehensive tutorial on identifying plagiarism and how to avoid it with the option to take a test and receive a certification.
Acknowledging Sources tutorial (University of Texas at Arlington Libraries) A brief tutorial on how to acknowledge your sources and avoid plagiarism.
APA Style Avoiding Plagiarism Guide A PDF handout outlining common forms of plagiarism with tips on how to avoid it.
Best Practices to Avoid Plagiarism (Purdue OWL) Tips and strategies to help you avoid plagiarism in your writing or course projects.
Avoiding Plagiarism (MIT Writing & Communication Center) A guide from the MIT Writing and Communication Center on plagiarism and tips for how to avoid it.
Plagiarism.org A website with useful resources for educators on plagiarism and how to teach students what it is and how to avoid it.

Plagiarism Detectors

PlagiarismDetector.net A free online plagiarism detection tool you can use to check if you accidentally plagiarized, or professors can use to verify the work you submitted is your own.
Next: Quoting, Paraphrasing, Summarizing & Patchwriting >>
Last Updated: Feb 23, 2024 2:22 PM
URL: https://library.ctstate.edu/citations

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Ways To Avoid Plagiarism In Your Research Paper

Introduction The best way to avoid plagiarism is not to plagiarize the work intentionally. It might sound simplistic, but some people can perceive themselves as copying just a few concepts or ideas that will help them meet their deadlines. This might be suitable for the corporate setting, but it is a fool’s game in academic writing. Thus, unintentional plagiarism is common, but since it is considered unintentional, it does not make it an expectation. The rest of the paper examines how to avoid common practices that risk unadvertised plagiarism in your research paper. While you must know how to avoid plagiarism, some of you might be completely unaware of the concept. In this article, we will emphasize tricks and tips for avoiding plagiarism in your research paper. What Is Considered Plagiarism In A Paper? Copying someone else’s work as a reference for writing your work is considered plagiarism. But, if you cite the source, it adds credit to the author as well as supports your evidence. Thus, look at things and practices that constitute plagiarism and that you need to avoid while writing a research paper:  Avoid using direct quotations without using quotation marks.  Cheating by copy-pasting.  Do not use in-text citations and source the reference of the article used.  An incorrect reference style can lead to plagiarism when detected using a plagiarism tool.

 Using someone else’s work as your own without any citation and acknowledgment. As a student, you must be utterly mindful when adding citations and references to avoid plagiarism and protect yourself from academic dishonesty. So, carefully consider these points and save your research paper from cancellation or deduction of marks. Tip To Avoid Plagiarism In Your Research Paper The majority of research and academic institutions generally have zero-tolerance policies toward plagiarism. However, some journals sometimes allow up to 12% to 15% plagiarism in a research paper. What can you do if you need to learn how to remove or avoid plagiarism without a specific strategy? Here is a list of tips to help you avoid plagiarism in your research paper.

Conduct In-depth Research To avoid plagiarism, you must conduct your research for your thesis or dissertation paper. Thus, before writing your introduction or thesis statement, you must cite the text sources in your academic research. This will help you avoid plagiarism detection when you upload your file to Turnitin. However, the concept or theory you use as a reference ensures you paraphrase them accurately without leaving any trace of plagiarism in the research paper. In addition, you need to understand the research’s thesis and topic and aim to avoid quoting, copying, and paraphrasing the text already in the database. If you are running out of time and your deadline is near, hire a paper writing service. This will be helpful as paraphrasing takes sufficient time.
Express Main Ideas In Own Language Instead of copying or pasting the sources’ ideas or concepts, you can explore what you have to say about them. Moreover, ask yourself what innovative perspective or concept you can contribute to your writing that is entirely your own. Therefore, try to keep in mind that if you are referring to a source’s idea to frame your own point, you will still need to cite the source.

So, recycling some of the previously used words can be tempting if you are writing on the same topic in different assignments. This is known as self-plagiarism. You need to avoid them from further plagiarism detection.

Change The Sequence If Paraphrasing There must be more than paraphrasing a particular concept or idea to avoid plagiarism. So, knowing the right technique for unplagiarized and effective paraphrasing is important. So, altering a phrase or a word with its synonyms in a sentence structure is a tapestry. For instance:  Original sentence: icebergs are increasing exponentially due to global warming.  Good paraphrasing: global warming leads to expeditious and extensive icebergs and defrosting.  Bad paraphrasing: Icebergs are defrosting at a massive speed due to global warming.
Use Quotation Marks It is always better to write something in your own words rather than just copy-pasting the definition or saying by a particular author. Thus, to avoid plagiarism, you should use paraphrasing or summarised techniques. Here is a quick way you can fix the issue:  Original sentence: AI is on the rise, leading to greater demand for emerging tools.  Warong way of saying it: The use of AI in the present days is resulting in greater demand for emerging technologies.  Proper use: The application of AI in technology is on the rise, leading to massive demand for innovative tools.
Citing Own Material If some of the material you are using for the research paper was originally used in your present class or previous academic year, then you must cite it yourself. You only need to treat the text the same as you would for someone else. While it might sound appropriate, using material you had used before is called self-plagiarism, and it is not acceptable.
Make A Reference List

Ensure you use a reference list, as it is mandatory nowadays. But you can be reassured if you are not aware of the full details of how to generate one. All you need to do is use Google Scholar or cite this for me and create citations for your sources. Therefore, maintain a reference list in a separate file and incorporate it at your research’s end. Hence, the reference list will help you pass the test easily without revealing any similarity to the work already present in the database.

Check Content With Plagiarism Checker While researching a topic, certain sentences stick with you so well that you end up including them. To save yourself from these situations, ensure to check your entire piece of work. Thus, you can use an online plagiarism-checking tool to help you catch the issues before making the final submission. Why Should You Avoid Plagiarism In Academic Writing? You need to avoid plagiarism for the following reasons:  To avoid hampering your reputation in the class or workplace.  To ensure academic integrity.  To ensure ethical research practice.  Credit should be given to the authors of the work you are referencing because it is a form of respecting someone’s work and effort. Wrapping Up This, adopting measures and watts stated in the above section, allows one to submit a plagiarism- free paper. However, you can use a plagiarism checker to ensure the uniqueness and novelty of your paper. This will mark out the faulty areas and assist you in making rectifications in the required areas. However, these tips and tricks can help make your research

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COMMENTS

Is paraphrasing considered plagiarism?
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.
Does Paraphrasing With A Tool Count As Plagiarism?
Therefore, the writer should always use a paraphrasing tool to avoid plagiarism, not cause it. Paraphrasing Should Be Thorough. One of the most common problems writers face when paraphrasing is the lack of it. In other words, not paraphrasing thoroughly is what commonly causes plagiarism.
A Guide to Plagiarism and Paraphrasing
A new concern revolves around AI and copying directly from chat, composition, and visual tools. Using prompts to generate content for assignments and passing it off as your own contribution is considered plagiarism. Various organizations use AI software to check for submissions generated by a chatbot.
Exploring the gray area: Understanding paraphrasing as a ...
The skill of paraphrasing is foundational in academic writing, serving as a safeguard against the pitfalls of plagiarism and academic misconduct. When a student fails to master this skill, they risk inadvertently crossing the line from legitimate use of sources to plagiarism, a serious breach of academic integrity.
Is using a paraphrasing tool plagiarizing?
Updated. If an outside source is paraphrased but has been cited, then it is not considered plagiarism. Paraphrasing tools are fair game for a user's original writing, but all paraphrased quotes and text taken from another source must be cited. Any effect that using Paraphraser has on a plagiarism checker score is purely coincidental, and ...
Paraphrasing vs Plagiarism (vs "Paraphrasing Plagiarism")
A common pitfall of paraphrasing is copying a sentence or direct quote, then the writer tweaks a few words, rewords sentences, or replaces original words with synonyms. Choosing to modify rather than rewrite from scratch is paraphrasing plagiarism. For an example of paraphrasing plagiarism: Imagine you're writing that Hamlet essay.
Is paraphrasing considered plagiarism?
When done correctly, paraphrasing is not plagiarism. However, if you fail to include a citation or do not adequately alter the original text, this can constitute plagiarism. For citations, you must include both an in-text citation as well as a complete reference entry according to the requirements of your style guide.
What Constitutes Plagiarism?
If you copy bits and pieces from a source (or several sources), changing a few words here and there without either adequately paraphrasing or quoting directly, the result is mosaic plagiarism.Even if you don't intend to copy the source, you may end up with this type of plagiarism as a result of careless note-taking and confusion over where your source's ideas end and your own ideas begin.
Is it cheating if students use AI to help with coursework?
The use of technology in academic writing is already widespread, with teachers and students using AI-based tools to support the work they are doing. However, as AI becomes increasingly advanced, institutions need to properly define what can be defined as AI-assistance and what is plagiarism or cheating, writes an academic.
Paraphrasing vs Plagiarism: Differences with Examples
Paraphrasing can also be considered plagiarism if you do not provide credit to the original writer. ... You can also use Grammarly's Plagiarism Tool, which is one of the best. Smodin's Paraphrasing Tool. Another excellent paraphrasing tool is Smodin's paraphrasing tool. Using this tool, you can rewrite any passage using as little as five ...
Why is it still plagiarism when I paraphrase and use my own words?
For instance, we can use the above idea from Plagiarism.org and build on it to form an original idea: It's important to cite our sources, whether they're quoted or paraphrased, to avoid plagiarism. First, let's discuss how to tell the difference between our own words and paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is summarizing the idea of another person ...
Is paraphrasing plagiarism?
not to use quotation marks to indicate the phrases coming from the author directly; to mix up paraphrasing with synonymization, which, when overused, is considered plagiarism. The thing is, modern plagiarism-checking tools can detect these kinds of changes and define your work as plagiarised. Let's pay attention to an example from PurdueOWL ...
AI plagiarism changers: What academic leaders need to know
AI-powered paraphrasing tools are more robust than ever. We addressed older generation plagiarism changers (e.g., word spinners, text spinners, or paraphrasing tools) in a prior post about word spinners. In that same post, we provided an example about the work produced by these paraphrasing tools. Original text:
Is it Legal to Use a Paraphrasing Tool to Avoid Plagiarism
In addition to these utilities, Paraphrasingtool.ai also offers a plagiarism checker that can check up to 25,000 words in one go. This tool is invaluable for writers seeking originality and authenticity in their work, allowing them to uphold the highest academic integrity and professionalism standards. Key Features.
Is paraphrasing considered plagiarism?
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 referencing the source. This means including an in-text citation and a full reference, formatted according to your required citation style.
Using Internet based paraphrasing tools: Original work, patchwriting or
To demonstrate the dangers in using paraphrasing tools an experiment was conducted using some easily accessible Internet-based paraphrasing tools to process part of an existing publication. ... Both scenarios could be considered as 'facilitated plagiarism' where an individual actively seeks to use some form of easily accessible Internet ...
Avoiding Plagiarism
Avoiding Plagiarism - Paraphrasing. In writing papers, you will paraphrase more than you will quote. For a report or research paper, you may need to gather background information that is important to the paper but not worthy of direct quotation. Indeed, in technical writing direct quotation is rarely used.
Proper vs. Improper Paraphrasing
6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material.
Top 6 Benefits of Paraphrasing Tools in 2024
Consequently, students can focus on other academic tasks with greater ease and efficiency. #3. Improves the Readability of Academic Documents. Paraphrasing tools enhance the readability of academic documents. Communicating complex concepts is crucial in essays, assignments, and reports.
Citation Basics
Citation Machine is an online citation generator you can use to create citations in MLA, APA, and other formats. It also has a tool that will check your paper for plagiarism. An online citation generator maintained by Hekman Library of Calvin University in Michigan. ZoteroBib is a free, open-sourced tool that helps you build a bibliography and ...
Ways To Avoid Plagiarism In Your Research Paper
writing a research paper: Avoid using direct quotations without using quotation marks. Cheating by copy-pasting. Do not use in-text citations and source the reference of the article used. An incorrect reference style can lead to plagiarism when detected using a plagiarism tool.
Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab
Mission. The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives.

A Guide to Plagiarism and Paraphrasing

Types of Plagiarism

Consequences of Plagiarism

How to Avoid Plagiarism

What Is Paraphrasing?

How to Approach Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing Tips

What Requires Citation?

Common Knowledge Exception

Why Citation Is Important

Plagiarism Prevention and Writing Resources

Plagiarism Checkers

Citation Managers

Writing Tools

Your Path to Success Begins Here

Paraphrasing vs Plagiarism (vs “Paraphrasing Plagiarism”)

What Is Plagiarism?

What is Copyright?

Types of Plagiarism

Self-Plagiarism

Accidental Plagiarism

What Is Paraphrasing Plagiarism?

How to Avoid Paraphrasing Plagiarism

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