Similarity Score: What It Is and How It Affects Your UK Student Essays

When you submit an essay, your university might run it through a tool like similarity score, a percentage that shows how much of your text matches existing sources like published papers, websites, or other students’ work. Also known as plagiarism detection rate, it doesn’t automatically mean you’ve cheated—it just flags matching phrases.

Most UK universities use systems like Turnitin, a widely used platform that compares student submissions against billions of documents and previously submitted papers. But here’s the thing: a 20% similarity score isn’t bad if it’s from properly cited quotes, common phrases, or standard terminology. What matters is context. If your entire literature review copies sentence structures from three journal articles without attribution, that’s a problem. If your methodology section includes standard lab procedures already described in textbooks, that’s normal. The real issue isn’t the number—it’s whether you’re showing your own thinking.

Many students panic when they see a high score, only to find out it’s from their own past submissions, a citation style template, or even a classmate’s work uploaded by accident. Tools like academic integrity software, systems designed to detect unoriginal content and promote honest scholarship aren’t meant to catch every match—they’re meant to help you learn how to write properly. That’s why universities give you a chance to review your report before final grading. Use it. Look at the highlighted sections. Ask yourself: Did I paraphrase well? Did I cite every source? Is this my voice, or am I just rearranging someone else’s words?

Some departments in the UK even allow you to submit drafts with similarity reports so you can fix issues before the final deadline. That’s not a trap—it’s a safety net. If you’re writing about Shakespeare, Newton, or the NHS, you’re going to have some overlap. That’s unavoidable. But if you’re copying whole paragraphs from Wikipedia or essay mills, that’s a red flag. The goal isn’t to get a zero percent score. It’s to get a score you can explain—and defend.

Below, you’ll find real guides from UK students who’ve been there: how to check your own work before submission, how to fix high similarity scores without rewriting everything, and how to use referencing tools like Zotero and EndNote to stay clean. You’ll also see how citation styles like Harvard affect your score, and why some tools flag footnotes or references as matches. This isn’t about avoiding detection. It’s about writing with confidence, knowing exactly where your ideas end and others’ begin.