How to reduce your plagiarism and AI score before you submit

What the two scores mean

• Plagiarism (similarity) is the share of your text that closely matches text that already exists: web pages, published papers, other students’ work. A match is not automatically plagiarism. A properly quoted and cited sentence still matches. The score is a list of places to look at, not a verdict.
• AI-likelihood estimates how much of your writing reads as if a language model produced it. Detectors make mistakes, especially with formal academic English and writing by non-native speakers, so treat it as a pointer for revision.

Departments set their own limits. Many Nigerian universities look for similarity under about 20 to 30 per cent, but ask your supervisor or check your handbook for the number your department uses.

When to check

Check once a chapter is drafted, not every time you change a word. A good rhythm: after Chapters One and Two, after Chapter Three, and a final check once everything is written. Each check uses one scan from your plan, and a check after real changes tells you far more than one after small edits.

Run the check

Open Tools → Plagiarism & AI check and click Check this report. InkScribe sends the text of your abstract and chapters. The title page, front matter and reference list are left out, because names and references always match something. The check takes a few minutes; you can keep writing while it runs.

The check is private. Only you see the results, and your report isn’t added to any database, so it won’t match itself when your school checks it later.

Read the results

The results below are an example, shown on our demo project so you can see what each part means. Your own scores will depend on your text.

• Exact, near and fuzzy matches show how close each match is. Exact matches need the most attention.
• Where it appears is a strip from the start of your report to the end. Clusters show which chapter needs work.
• Matching sources list where the matching text comes from, with the share of your report each one accounts for.

Fix each passage

Click a passage in the results to jump to it in your report, then decide which of three fixes it needs:

1. Cite it. If the idea came from a source, say so. A properly cited paraphrase is good scholarship. Use Cite in the toolbar, or select the sentence and choose Find sources to have InkScribe find a real paper that supports it.
2. Rewrite it in your own words. If the sentence is generic, such as a textbook definition, rewrite it so it says something about your study. Select it and choose Paraphrase, then edit the suggestion until it sounds like you.
3. Quote it. For an exact definition or legal wording you must keep, put it in quotation marks with the citation and page number. Use quotations sparingly.

A paraphrase comes back as a suggestion in your text: the old wording struck through, the new wording beside it. Nothing changes until you accept it.

AI-like passages

Passages flagged as AI-like usually share a few habits: grand openings (“In today’s rapidly evolving landscape…”), lists of three adjectives, and claims that could apply to any project. They are fixed the same way you would improve any weak writing:

• Replace general statements with specifics: your location, your sample, your components, your numbers.
• Say what you did and found, in plain words. Use “I” or “the researcher” as your department prefers.
• Cut filler. If a sentence can be removed without losing anything, remove it.

If your school asks how you used AI, the Authorship tab shows how much of each chapter you wrote, edited or drafted with InkScribe. See Using AI in your final-year project.

Check again

Once you have worked through the list, click Check again. The new results replace the old ones, so you can see the score fall. Save your last check for when the whole report is finished.

What not to do

• Don’t use “spinners” or letter tricks such as swapping letters for look-alike symbols or adding hidden characters. Checkers catch them, and they are treated as deliberate cheating.
• Don’t remove citations to lower the score. Citations don’t count against you; uncited ideas do.
• Don’t chase zero. Some matching is normal: common phrases, definitions, the names of methods. Aim for your department’s limit with every match accounted for.
• Don’t paste text from a past project. Your school’s checker compares against its own students’ work, which no outside checker can see.

Before you submit

1. Every idea from a source has a citation, and every citation is in the reference list.
2. Exact wording you kept is in quotation marks with a page number.
3. Flagged passages are cited, rewritten in your own words, or quoted.
4. General statements are replaced with details from your own study.
5. Your final check is within your department’s limit, and you can explain any remaining matches.