Academic Integrity

Did you know that it's also possible to plagiarize your own work? That's right—reusing past work and passing it off as new is also considered plagiarism. In other words, never repurpose past papers or work for new assignments (unless you have explicit permission from your professor to do so!). 

There are many apps and tools out there that promise you better academic or professional outcomes but beware, it is easy to misuse or overuse these tools! We have reviewed a few of the most common resources out there and consolidated them for you: 

Grammar, writing and tone tools:

• Grammarly.com.  Grammarly has a Chrome extension for grammar and uploading paper to check for plagiarism. Grammarly also has a paraphrasing tool if what you've written is too close to the original text. You have to be careful that Grammarly does not change the meaning of your writing. Use it for mechanics, but don't like the software change your style or voice. 
• Purdue Online Writing Lab - The Owl - Plagiarism exercises, information, and how to paraphrase.  You can also check your paper for plagiarism there. 

• Word Tune is similar to Grammarly.  It's a free Chrome extension that checks grammar, sentence structure, and plagiarism, and you can even see how your text might be interpreted based on the tone of your text.  

Plagiarism Prevention Tools:

• Turnitin is available for RMCAD students. You will receive a class code from your instructor. Use Turnitin to make sure you are paraphrasing well before turning your paper in for a grade. Turnitin now has an artificial intelligence detector.
• Purdue Online Writing Lab - The Owl - Plagiarism exercises, information, and how to paraphrase.  You can also check your paper for plagiarism there. 
• Plagiarism Detector is a free website where you can upload or paste your paper's text for free and it will check the internet for plagiarism and paraphrasing. This plagiarism detector does not check for the use of artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT.

Also, be sure to check out our SLC guide for citation managers.

REMEMBER, paraphrasing tools and websites that take original text and rearrange it are NOT acceptable for academic work.