How to Interpret a Plagiarism Report

Open the report and work through the highlighted passages one at a time. For each match, compare your sentence with the source: is the wording identical, close, or only loosely related? Is the source already cited in the text and in the reference list?

This passage-level review is the part of the process that improves the document. The overall percentage is only a summary of what you are about to read.

Most matches fall into a small number of categories, and each has a different fix.

• Correctly quoted and cited: no change, but check the quotation marks and reference entry.

• Borrowed wording without quotation marks: add quotation marks and a citation, or rewrite in your own structure.

• Close paraphrase: rebuild the sentence from your understanding of the idea, then cite the source.

• Common phrase or title: usually no action needed, but confirm the context.

• Reference list or heading match: expected in most academic documents.

Keep a brief note of what you changed and why. If a supervisor or editor asks about a passage later, a revision record is more useful than a remembered intention.

Finish with a check of the final draft you plan to submit — citations, references, and formatting included — because edits made after a check can introduce new unattributed text.