Avoiding Plagiarism: A Practical Guide

In your notes, mark quotes clearly and keep the source next to them. Colour-coding works.

Swapping synonyms is not paraphrasing. Read the passage, close it, and write the idea in your own structure.

If a claim, statistic, framework, or argument came from a source, it needs a citation even when reworded.

MLA, APA, and Chicago differ in details, not in principle: name the source, let the reader find it. Check the current rules in the MLA Style Center or the APA Style guidelines rather than an old handout.

Definitions of plagiarism and the consequences for it are set by your institution. Policies vary—check your course or instructor's rules, and read your school's academic integrity page before you rely on any general advice.

• Every quotation has quotation marks and a page or timestamp
• Every paraphrase is written from memory, not edited word-by-word
• Every statistic, figure, and framework has a citation
• Every in-text citation appears in the reference list, and the reverse
• Any AI assistance is allowed by your course policy, and disclosed if asked
• A similarity check has been run, and each flag has been reviewed by you

OwlWho's similarity check reviews your draft and flags passages that may need attribution, and saves the report to your account. It is a prompt to double-check your own citations, not a verdict on originality — no tool can certify that a piece of writing is original. Essay Help can format citations in MLA or APA for you to verify.

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