Many instructors use Turnitin.com “similarity score” to check for plagiarism. Words or phrases that appear in other places, such as websites, books, documents, or other students’ papers will be flagged as “similar.” When a similarity score reaches a certain percentage, your instructor may ask you to do the assignment again. If this happens to you, use this 3-step process to lower your similarity score.
Click here to review SNHU's Academic Integrity Policy
Step 1: Can you replace or reword anything?
Change some of the wording in the flagged section. Swap out verbs or adjectives, or rearrange the sentence. Write truly transformed paraphrases and summaries. If you are still stuck, you can use a thesaurus to help you find alternative words or phrases.
Step 2: Can you add anything?
Add more words and ideas to decrease the similarity score. Explain important concepts and expand ideas in your own words. The more original ideas you can add, the lower your similarity score will be. But how? “Your own words” come from thorough analysis; make sure you’re not leaving any source material “alone,” but explaining exactly why you used it to your reader.
Step 3: Do you need to cite a source?
Make sure to put direct wording from a source in quotation marks. Then, use an in-text citation to give credit to the original source. Paraphrasing quotes can help lower similarity scores, too. Even if you paraphrase, you'll include an in-text citation for the source.
Need More Help?
Want additional support? Sign up for our group sessions. Take a look at the full workshop schedule. For help signing up and accessing the Academic Support Center, see the How to Book ASC Sessions Page.