How Do Universities Check for Plagiarism?

Plagiarism checks might sound intense, but they’re not designed to try an catch you out. They are in place to ensure the fairness and validity of the work you are submitting. They reward originality, and help you improve your research skills. If you’re new to university, or returning after the summer break, this guide breaks down how universities in the UK check for plagiarism.

We’ll give you the inside track on how Turnitin actually works, as well as some of the other methods your university could use to inspect your essays. Let’s get right into it.

What Does Checking for Plagiarism Mean?

At its core, checking for plagiarism means looking through your work to see whether any of your work has been copied or forged using other sources. It can also involve catching any pieces of work without proper referencing. This can include:

• Copying from books, journals, or websites
• Reusing past assignments (even your own)
• Overusing quotes without sufficient analysis of them
• Using AI tolls or your friends work without proper acknowledgement

Universities don’t like to leave anything to chance. They have all invested heavily in digital tools that can spot any form of plagiarism.

How Do Universities Check for Plagiarism?

When you upload that essay onto your university portal, here’s a run down of what happens before you receive your results.

1. Plagiarism Detection Software

Almost every university in the UK use systems like Turnitin which scan your work in an instant to check against the following:

• Billions of websites and publications
• Previously submitted works by other students
• Subscription based academic databases

Turnitin doesn’t label anything as plagiarism. Instead, it flags any text that matches other work and gives it a similarity score that is usually displayed as a percentage. A high score doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done anything wrong, but it will alert your lecturers to have a closer look.

You can keep your similarity score lower by paraphrasing any references and making sure you’ve cited them properly.

2. Manual Review by Academic Staff

Your lecturers have been trained to spot ay writing that looks out of place in your work. If you essay suddenly switches tone or includes terminology that you haven’t been taught yet, it raises questions. This is the main reason why writing in your own style is important. It’s also why universities encourage critical thinking, so that you connect ideas rather than repeat them.

3. Cross-Referencing Past Submissions

Universities store old essays for years following their submission, so you can never get away with using your siblings work from 5 years ago! Reusing parts of a previous essay without referencing it is known as (self plagiarism) and it can be counted as a major misdemeanour.

For example, it a student reused their own literature review from a foundation year essay in their dissertation, it could trigger a Turnitin match. This could result in a formal meeting in which their actions would need explaining to the faculty. It’s not a good position to be in.

What Happens if Your Work is Flagged?

It’s important not to panic in the first instance, as a high similarity score doesn’t result in any immediate penalties. What usually happens is that your tutor will receive the report from Turnitin so that they can manually assess whether the matches it has given are valid.

After this check has been completed, you may be contacted by your tutor to explain your work. Depending on the outcome of this meeting a decision will be made on what happens next. You could be fine, but you could also risk a formal warning or investigation should it happen regularly.

If you know you’ve made a mistake, and where it can be found you should be honest about it. Universities are far less likely to penalise an honest student over one who lies to them.

What About AI Generated Text?

This is a big problem that universities are facing in the modern age. Many are deciding to update their policies surrounding the use of tools such as ChatGPT. This is primarily to ensure academic integrity, and make sure their students learn how to research properly.

Some institutions do allow students to use AI lightly for simple tasks such as grammar checking and outlining. Others have banned them entirely. So, make sure to read your universities policy before writing any essays.

If you’re struggling with your research, make sure to speak to your tutors before turning to AI. The tech isn’t as clever at hiding itself as many think.

Ways to Avoid Plagiarism

University students have been researching essays for centuries, and have had to use traditional methods for just as long. Try some of the below tips to avoid slipping into the trap of plagiarism:

• Use referencing tolls such as Mendeley or Zotero.
• Paraphrase any quotes rather than copying them in directly.
• Keep your references in one place to track your sources.
• Ask for help if you’re unsure on how to write an essay.
• Use Turnitin’s preview option if it is offered, this will help you spot issues before submission.

It can also be a good idea to check each others work to make sure you have a different pair of eyes read over it before you send it off. No copying though.

Is Plagiarism Ever Accidental?

Of course, not everyone is out to try and cheat the system!

For instance, international students that may not speak English fluently can often be caught out due to the simplistic phrasing of certain sentences. You could also come from an education system that encourages collaborative work more openly. We are sticklers for originality here in the UK, but we are also focussed on educating rather than punishing offenders.

This being said, it’s important to familiarise yourself with what your university expects from the very beginning. Many run essay support sessions, and have online courses you can enrol on through your digital portal.

Take Time for a Break

Writing essays can be a stressful experience, meaning that taking regular breaks is important. Take time to read some more of our blog posts and explore your options for great days out, nights in, or bigger adventures.

Own Your Words

Checking for plagiarism isn’t about punishment, because universities want to keep students with them instead of forcing them out. Your work will always be marked with fairness, so you owe it to yourself to research properly.

You might enjoy trying out new research techniques, or using trusted methods that are proven to be efficient, either way academic honesty is a valuable trait for a student. It’ll feel much better receiving that 1st class mark when you know you’ve achieved it fairly.