Get Now 
Many students scare from plagiarism. The name alone causes many students to feel anxious about getting caught for submitting “plagiarized” or flagged content.
However, not all plagiarism is intentional, and not all “flagged” content is “plagiarized.”
It turns out many students misunderstand plagiarism and many feel anxious about it because removing it can be hectic, which only adds up to their homework load.
If you can relate to this situation, then don’t worry. Plagiarism is nothing to be anxious about. Once you read this guide and understand plagiarism, you will no longer feel nervous by it. We will understand:
What is plagiarism?
The difference between plagiarism and similarity
What increases similarity scores?
How to reduce plagiarism quickly? (with simple steps)
Common Mistakes & Misunderstandings
Let’s start.
What is Plagiarism?
“Plagiarism” is the copying and misrepresentation of someone else’s ideas without giving them credit. A person who plagiarizes copies someone else’s ideas, does not specify the source (the real author or owner of the ideas) and presents them as his own instead. This is plagiarism.
The interesting thing about plagiarism is that it does not necessarily get detected by plagiarism checkers. And even if it’s not detected, plagiarism occurs as long as you take someone’s idea without crediting them for it.
Plagiarism is a vastly unethical issue and is greatly looked down upon in academia. That’s why avoiding it is important.
However, “plagiarism” is not the same as “similarity.”
What is Similarity?
Similarity is the word- and structure-based overlap in your content with someone else’s content.
When you run your content through a plagiarism checker, the tool shows you a percentage-based plagiarism score, based on how much of the text is matching content from someone else. That “score” is not actually a “plagiarism” score, but a “similarity” score (although most people still refer to it as a plagiarism score).
It’s because a plagiarism checker looks at word and structure-based matches in your content while comparing it to existing publications. Once it finds sentences or phrases that are identical or similar to those of existing content, it flags those phrases in your submission.
The more the text gets flagged, the higher the similarity score. A 100% similarity score means your entire submission matches one or multiple existing publications (sources).
What’s the Difference and Relation Between Plagiarism & Similarity?
The two concepts are often confused and used interchangeably, but they’re actually quite different. Plagiarism is an ethical violation, while similarity is a literal text match.
The easiest way to understand the difference between plagiarism and similarity is through this comparison.
The main concern students usually have is plagiarism. But they end up checking similarity scores in plagiarism checkers, thinking it’s the actual plagiarism, while that’s not entirely the case.
The Relation Between Plagiarism and Similarity
While plagiarism and similarity are two different things, there’s a strong correlation between the two.
The thing is, plagiarism detectors are made to identify and flag "plagiarism". However, due to the complexity of plagiarism, it can be difficult to determine with complete certainty whether a student has plagiarized. Also, sometimes plagiarism is intentional and sometimes not, so tools can’t reliably judge students’ intent. What they do instead is that they simply identify “similarities” between the submitted paper and existing content, then leave the judgment (of actual plagiarism) to humans.
That’s why there’s a strong bridge between plagiarism and similarity. If you commit plagiarism, there’s a chance that your content will overlap with the plagiarized source and trigger similarity in the plagiarism checker.
On the other hand, if your content is detected to be similar to a source, there’s a chance that it’s plagiarizing the source by missing a citation. Understanding the correlation between plagiarism and similarities is important because it allows students to reduce plagiarism by reducing the detectable similarities. So to avoid plagiarism, your goal should be to reduce similarities as well.
But we won’t know how to avoid similarities without knowing what plagiarism checkers look for and what causes similarity scores. So, let’s take a look at them.
If Similarity Doesn’t Indicate Plagiarism, then Why Avoid it?
Similarity should be kept to a minimum, and ideally, the score should remain below 20%.
This is because many institutes and platforms use bots and automatic systems that can auto-reject your assignment if its similarity score is above a certain percentage, even if similarity doesn’t indicate plagiarism. This helps speed up the grading process.
In case an assignment isn’t completely rejected, a relatively high similarity score could get your assignment flagged as suspicious instead, which slows down the grading process and can result in a loss of marks.
This is why reducing the similarity score is important.
How Does a Plagiarism Checker Detect Similarity?
Think of a plagiarism checker as a blind exam invigilator who can read exam papers like Braille.
The exam invigilator is tasked with overseeing students during the exam so that they don’t cheat. But since the invigilator is blind, he can’t watch students write and can’t tell if one student actually copied from another. However, when he reads a student’s paper, he can flag it as suspicious if its wording matches another student’s paper.
Plagiarism checkers work very similar to this. They don’t know whether you copied from a source or not. They only detect and match strings of text, such as phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc.
They match your academic content against a vast dataset of millions of existing content to check for word and structure overlaps. Some of the patterns plagiarism checkers look for include:
Identical wording (word-for-word matches)
Similar wording
Structural and grammatical footprints
Paraphrasing and semantic similarity
These patterns allow plagiarism checkers to accurately assess a paper’s similarity score.
After the scan, the plagiarism checker highlights matching sections and generates a similarity report showing the sources where similar text was found. You can then review the matches, verify citations, and revise the content if necessary.
What Increases Similarity Score?
Reducing similarity score becomes easy when you know what exactly can increase or decrease it. Let’s take a look at several factors that can affect the similarity score:
Common Phrases: Common phrases like “it’s imperative that we…” and “In conclusion…” are, well, common in all kinds of writing. Detectors can flag these phrases and increase the similarity score.
Improper or Missing Citations: Some advanced plagiarism detectors, like Turnitin, can identify citations and include or ignore cited references. They can flag quoted references if the citation is improper or missing.
Loose Paraphrasing: Students borrow ideas from sources by paraphrasing the original text. However, sometimes their paraphrasing is loose and ineffective, so the paraphrased text ends up matching the original content, increasing the similarity score.
Similarity in Structure and grammar: Sometimes, a sentence is rewritten well enough that its wording becomes unique. However, modern plagiarism checkers also examine sentence structure and grammatical patterns. If your sentence’s structure and grammar sequence match a source text, it can get flagged.
These factors can suggest that you’re plagiarizing, but that’s not always necessarily true. Let’s take a look at some practical steps that can help you reduce plagiarism.
11 Steps to Reduce Similarity Score
Step 1: Check for Plagiarism
The first step is to use a reliable plagiarism checker to check plagiarism in your paper. Ideally, you should use the tool your professor or institute uses.
If you don’t have access to the tool used by your institute, any reliable plagiarism checker can work, such as PlagiarismRemover.co.
If you’re using Turnitin, toggle the “Exclude Quotes” (or similar) option on or off to check your assignment both ways with and without citations.
If, in any case, the score is more than 20%, it’s best to reduce plagiarism before submitting the work.
Step 2: Analyze the Similarity Report
Carefully read and analyze the similarity report. Look at the parts that got flagged and mark them in your assignment. Break them down into several types:
Quotations: Flagged quotations that are missing citations can be fixed by adding their sources’ citations.
Cited Paraphrased References: These kinds of flagged parts can be paraphrased again more thoroughly.
Common Phrases: These can be ignored or replaced, depending on the similarity score.
Step 3: Add Missing Citations
If you forgot to cite a quote or reference, now is the time to do it. Go through the similarity report to find the plagiarized source and add the necessary citation.
Read through your assignment to check if any other references that you used are missing citations and cite them.
Step 4: Fix Improper Citations
Advanced plagiarism checkers don’t just look at missing citations. They can also identify incorrect citation formatting and flag those parts, because improper citations may be regarded as invalid.
If a cited text is flagged while using the tool, it could be because of incorrect formatting. Fixing it can lower the similarity score in that case.
Step 5: Balance Quotations With Paraphrasing
Direct quotations include verbatim text (i.e., text which is taken word for word from the source).
Firstly, make sure all quotes have citations. If the similarity score is still high, especially when the “Exclude Quotes” option is off, you can paraphrase some of the references instead of quoting them, which will get rid of identical wording and eventually lower the similarity score.
In fact, you should never have too many quotations, or you’ll run into similarity issues.
Step 6: Paraphrase Similar Text
If you borrowed a piece of text by paraphrasing and cited its source, getting flagged means it’s not well-paraphrased.
Simply rewrite the text thoroughly to remove the flag.
Step 7: Use a Plagiarism Remover
Plagiarism remover: rewrite your input text to transform it thoroughly, reducing the chances of plagiarism.
A plagiarism remover can handle situations when you try to paraphrase the text but can’t make it sufficiently different, which fails to reduce the similarity score.
Simply visit a reliable plagiarism remover, paste the flagged text that you want to paraphrase, and click the “Remove Plagiarism” button. Once the output is displayed, copy and use.
Step 8: Change the Order of Ideas
Sometimes, similarity occurs not due to word choice, but due to structural similarities, such as the order of ideas.
Advanced plagiarism checkers are clever enough to identify, match, and flag such subtle patterns.
To fix it, consider changing the order of ideas in the sentence or paragraph.
For example:
If the original sentence is: “Hilda was sad because her manager shouted at her for coming late.”
You can change it to: “Hilda’s manager shouted at her for coming late, that’s why she’s sad.”
Step 9: Ignore or Replace Generic Phrases
If the similarity score has decreased and reached the acceptable level by following other steps, then you can ignore common phrases flagged by the tool.
But if the similarity score is still not low enough, consider replacing the flagged generic phrases. Sometimes it’s possible to get rid of some phrases entirely, which also helps.
Step 10: Add Your Insights
Lastly, don’t just rely on source material to write your assignment. The more you borrow material from sources, the more the chances of similarity score. And the more the similarity score, the harder it will be to reduce it.
Students are also highly encouraged to come up with original insights and add their own commentary in the assignment (when and where possible), to increase its originality. This automatically lowers the similarity score.
Step 11: Alter the Heading Structure
Plagiarism checkers can also flag headings. Some advanced plagiarism can also sense similarity in the broader heading structure of the paper. Copying heading structures like this also amounts to plagiarism.
So, if you followed a source’s heading structure very closely, it might be getting flagged, especially if the headings have similar or identical wording.
The solution to this is rewording similar headings and changing the structure altogether.
Common Misunderstandings & Mistakes
Some misunderstandings and mistakes that students make can lead to high scores in plagiarism checkers.
Avoiding Citations by Paraphrasing: Some students think that if they paraphrase a reference to make it undetectable, they won’t have to cite the source. That’s incorrect. You need to cite the source whether you paraphrase or not.
Loose Paraphrasing: Some students paraphrase text very lightly by only swapping a few synonyms. This keeps the text’s overall wording similar and causes similarity.
Inconsistent Citation Style: Incorrect citation format can invalidate the citation, which can increase the similarity score.
How to Avoid Plagiarism From the Beginning
Instead of reducing similarities after you’ve written an assignment, you can strive to keep it plagiarism-free from the beginning. This can save you time and effort. Here are some ways to prevent plagiarism from occurring:
Avoid Relying on AI Writing Tools
Using raw AI-generated content can lead to plagiarism because these tools sometimes write verbatim from the sources. So avoid relying on AI tools, or paraphrase (and cite!) their output text instead of using it raw, that is, if and when your institute allows you to use these tools.
Take Proper Notes
Research includes a lot of note-taking. And sometimes, ineffective notes lead to plagiarism because students mix source material and their own words, and sometimes forget to specify sources altogether.
Instead, take proper notes by recording references along with their citations and keeping your own insights separated by using quotation marks (“”) on references.
Track Citations and Sources
Lengthy assignments with 10-20 source references can confuse you and lead to missing or incorrect citations.
That’s why you should track your citations by recording them clearly and organizing them for ease of access and readability. This makes it easier to track and cite the sources right away when writing, which is important.
Use Quotation
It’s easy to miss quotation marks (“”) in the flow of writing. This punctuation mark is necessary when you’re writing a source text verbatim; it’s considered an act of plagiarism.
Make sure you don’t miss any quotation marks where they’re needed. Write them clearly in your notes so that you remember to use them when placing the bits together when writing.
Don’t Assume Originality and Check For Plagiarism
You may be tempted to assume that your content is original because you tried to paraphrase well and cited the references. However, that’s not necessary. Multiple factors and aspects affect the similarity score, which are easy to miss, so it’s best to check your assignment beforehand instead of regretting it later.
Conclusion
Reducing plagiarism scores can be challenging if you confuse plagiarism and similarities and aren’t familiar with how plagiarism detectors actually flag content. Plagiarism is the act of taking someone’s ideas without credit, while similarities are simply textual overlaps, and plagiarism detectors use the overlaps to try to catch possible plagiarism.
Understanding these concepts can help you edit the text to reduce plagiarism score using simple steps, such as fixing improper citations and balancing paraphrased texts with direct quotes.
The best approach to avoiding plagiarism is being proactive and trying to avoid it from the beginning.
