What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism means that you (consciously or unconsciously) copy someone else's ideas or work without properly acknowledging the source. In doing so, you violate that person's intellectual property. Plagiarism is therefore strictly forbidden in your thesis or essay. It can earn you a failing grade or even suspension from your studies. This is not what you want! But, what exactly is plagiarism and how do you recognise it? 

Plagiarism is taking ideas or even literal sentences from someone else's work, without properly referring to that source. Quoting and paraphrasing are certainly allowed. However, it is important to do so according to the correct rules (e.g. the APA rules or the Guideline for Legal Authors) and to cite your source. Otherwise, it will appear as if you are taking credit for the words or ideas from the original source. 

In general, plagiarism can occur in two ways. You can copy texts word for word and not mention the source, or paraphrase texts (i.e. use your own words) without mentioning the correct source.

Plagiarism can occur in several ways. You can read more about forms of plagiarism in another article. Here are a few examples of what plagiarism can look like:

• The most serious form of plagiarism is when you submit a text written entirely by someone else. This applies, for example, if you submit someone else's work and pretend it is your own essay or thesis.

• You copy sentences or phrases from another text verbatim without using inverted commas. (You may copy text verbatim, but must use inverted commas and cite it afterwards.)

• You paraphrase a text (without citing a source), but do not use your own words sufficiently. This makes the text look too much like the original. (You fix this by choosing to quote with an acknowledgement or by writing down the information in a way that differs more from the original).

• You quote too much text and add very little of your own. It is common for quotations to be at most 40 words long. Be selective in what text you do and do not quote.

• You literally translate a text from another language and present it (without citing the source) as your own words. 

• You reuse texts you have previously submitted for other assignments and do not cite them. This counts as self-plagiarism. (You can resolve this by quoting or paraphrasing your previous text, and citing your previously submitted assignment as the source).

• Your source citation is incorrect, preventing readers from discovering where you got information from. (Fix this by using our source generator or having our editors do a source check for you).

• If you have your thesis written by a ghostwriter, this is still plagiarism. There may be a chance that your educational institution will not know, but the consequences are huge if your supervisor or teacher does find out. Always write your thesis yourself. Check out our tips for writing your thesis if you can't figure it out on your own.

Almost every assignment you hand in, including your thesis, is checked for plagiarism. Many colleges and universities do this with a plagiarism checker, such as Turnitin. This tool automatically checks to what extent your assignment or thesis overlaps with billions of other online or offline sources. This allows your educational institution to detect plagiarism quickly. 

If there is indeed plagiarism, there may be consequences. Sometimes these are mild, such as having to edit part of the text. In other situations, you face bigger consequences, such as receiving a failing grade. In serious cases, you may even be suspended from your institution.

We share several tips to avoid plagiarism in another article. In general, you can do the following to avoid accidental plagiarism:

• When citing a source, record immediately which source you used (and possibly which page it is on). 

• Follow the rules for quoting and paraphrasing.

• Try to paraphrase as much as possible, clearly choosing your own words. A website like Synonymen.net can help you do this.

• Save all sources used so you can easily find them again when making your bibliography. 

• Follow the source citation rules for your course. Use our free source generator for APA or Legal Authors' Guide style citations to make sure you get this right. 

Want to make sure your thesis or essay does not contain any plagiarism? Then let our plagiarism checker review your document. We use Turnitin for this purpose. This tool compares your document with billions of other documents and gives you instant insight into incidences of possible plagiarism. This allows you to correct them before submission and avoid punishment.

Read more about the plagiarism check below or upload your document directly to start the check.