<![CDATA[Paraphrasing is central to avoiding plagiarism in thesis writing, yet many EFL students find it difficult and increasingly hand it to digital tools. This study examines how Indonesian EFL students use digital tools to avoid plagiarism in thesis writing and what their practices reveal about their understanding of academic integrity. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design combined a questionnaire completed by 23 undergraduate, master's and doctoral students from 11 universities with semi-structured interviews with six of them. Students rated paraphrasing as one of the harder language skills (M = 2.96 on a scale where 1 is very difficult), and 22 of 23 used online tools such as ChatGPT, Grammarly or thesauruses. Of the 20 students who described how they avoid plagiarism, 9 delegated paraphrasing entirely to tools, 3 combined tools with their own editing or translation, 5 relied on their own words and correct citation, 2 used similarity checkers and 1 sought peer feedback. QuillBot was named by 8 students and was the default strategy among doctoral respondents. Interviews revealed premium accounts bought through online marketplaces, tools shared among friends, and one interviewee's observation, from Turnitin training, that similarity checkers cannot verify whether in-text citations match the reference list. The findings suggest that students commonly equate avoiding plagiarism with avoiding textual similarity, a view that treats integrity as a technical matter rather than one of authorship and attribution. The study proposes an integrity-oriented paraphrasing process and discusses implications for supervision, writing instruction and institutional AI policy.]]>
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