Chapter 7 of 9 · 4 practices · 4 min · 4-question quiz
Avoid plagiarism and understand similarity checks
Your report will almost certainly go through a similarity checker such as Turnitin. Know what the score means, what your rules say and how to write so the problem never arises.
Start: Know what counts as plagiarism in a project report4 practices in this chapter
- 1Know what counts as plagiarism in a project reportPlagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own. In a final year project report it includes: Copying text, even a few sentences, without quotation marks and a citation; Paraphrasing closely…
- 2Understand that a similarity score is a signal, not a verdictTurnitin's own guidance says its similarity score shows how much of your text matches other sources; it does not decide whether you plagiarised. A high score can come from properly quoted and cited…
- 3Paraphrase by understanding, not by rewording toolsReal paraphrasing means reading a source, closing it, and explaining the idea in your own words and structure, followed by a citation. It usually comes out shorter than the original and connects the…
- 4Cite your own earlier work, such as course reports and papersReusing your own previous writing without saying so is called self-plagiarism, and similarity checkers find it easily if the earlier work was submitted before. HEC's guidance, for example, says…
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