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Free Plagiarism Checker by Quetext

Online plagiarism checker: how it works, enter text into plagiarism detector.

Our plagiarism detection tool, featuring DeepSearch™ Technology, provides a simple and effective method for checking plagiarism. Just copy and paste your content into the tool, then click the 'Check Plagiarism' button.

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Check for plagiarism

Quetext’s online tool identifies any potentially plagiarized content throughout your document by running the text through three steps:

  • 1. Contextual Analysis
  • 2. Fuzzy Matching
  • 3. Conditional Scoring

Evaluate plagiarism report

After evaluating the text against billions of internet sources, our plagiarism software will share your plagiarism results, including a score showing the percentage of text that is an exact or near-match to existing text online. (The higher the score, the more plagiarism found in your content!)

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Resolve plagiarism risk and add citations

Our ColorGrade™ feature color-codes exact and near matches, letting you address plagiarism by modifying or citing the source. The "Cite Source" tool generates citations in MLA, APA, and Chicago formats for direct insertion into your document.

Plagiarism Checker Chrome Extension

Check the originality of webpage copy directly from your Google Chrome browser with our free plagiarism checker Chrome extension.

Benefits of Doing a Plagiarism Check

Whether producing original content or verifying that of others, there’s a lot to gain from using a plagiarism checker. An accurate, user-friendly plagiarism scanner provides real-time, automatic detection of duplicate content, facilitating the copy-checking process for teachers, students, content writers, and more. Results showing the exact percentage of plagiarized content allow users to see exactly how much text has been copied and where they need to re-word, thus helping to avoid unintentional plagiarism.

teacher

For Teachers

Our tool ensures academic integrity by verifying students’ work for originality, aiding educators in grading. From K-12 to higher education, it automates plagiarism checks, freeing teachers to prioritize work quality over originality scrutiny in academic and research papers.

student

For Students

The prevalence of academic plagiarism is increasing, often unintentionally. A reliable online plagiarism checker offers students peace of mind when submitting academic papers. It's easier to check for potential plagiarism before submission than to defend your writing later. Quetext ensures accurate results and helps students cite sources with its built-in citation generator.

copywriter

For Copywriters

Plagiarism risk extends beyond academia to business and individual writing. Copied content is a concern for content writers tasked with creating original content on diverse topics. Our plagiarism checker swiftly prevents copyright infringement, ensuring bloggers and writers maintain integrity. Checking lengthy pieces takes minutes, safeguarding companies’ public content and writers’ reputations.

Quetext’s Online Tool Has It All:

  • AI detector
  • Expanded citation generator
  • Individual or team plans
  • Bulk file uploads
  • Spelling & grammar checker
  • 100,000 total words/month per user
  • Downloadable originality reports
  • Source exclusion

What is AI Plagiarism Detection?

As AI tools advance, creating content that mimics original work can now constitute plagiarism. This underscores the necessity for AI-driven detection tools. Our AI content detector uses sophisticated algorithms to scan and compare vast databases, ensuring accurate identification of plagiarized content. Employing an AI plagiarism checker like these is crucial to maintain integrity in academic and professional spheres, safeguarding against unintentional or deliberate plagiarism.

Plagiarism Checker FAQ

What is plagiarism.

Plagiarism is the act of representing someone else’s work as your own. In educational contexts, definitions vary by institution. It includes direct copying, improper paraphrasing, and self-plagiarism, where one reuses their own work without citation. Plagiarism violates academic integrity and journalistic ethics. In academic writing, producing original work and appropriately crediting sources prevents plagiarized content. Accidental plagiarism occurs when sources are unintentionally cited incorrectly, underscoring the importance of understanding citation practices. Maintaining originality and avoiding plagiarism not only uphold academic integrity but also contribute to creating original content that advances knowledge and scholarship.

What percentage of a paper can be plagiarized (or copied) and still be considered unique?

Generally speaking, similar or exact copies of another source should be kept under 15% for the total text of the article/paper/essay. As a best practice, citations should be used whenever using another original source word-for-word.

What’s the difference between deliberate and accidental plagiarism?

Deliberate plagiarism is purposely copying works from books, articles, webpages, or someone else’s paper and representing it as your original work. Alternatively, accidental plagiarism occurs in a few different ways:

  • Incorrectly citing another person’s works
  • Failing to paraphrase another person’s works - even when citing it correctly
  • Reusing your own previous papers and inadvertently representing it as a new idea

A plagiarism checker works by comparing the submitted copy against known existing content. This sort of similarity checker flags instances of duplicate content, allowing the writer to modify those areas to avoid any claims of plagiarism.

What are the consequences of plagiarism?

The consequences of plagiarizing another person’s work vary by profession. For Students: Maintaining academic integrity is crucial. Students must ensure their work is not plagiarized. Consequences include failing grades, removal from classes, or expulsion. Even if allowed to stay, students may face mistrust and scrutiny. For Copywriters: Copywriters must produce original content. Plagiarized content can damage their reputation and make it hard to get assignments. Ensuring 100% originality is their responsibility. For Journalists: Journalists must uphold high standards of integrity. Plagiarized content erodes trust with readers and publishers, potentially ending careers. They must produce original, well-cited content.

Why is plagiarism bad?

There are several reasons why plagiarism is wrong, all centering around violating academic integrity, undermining originality, and eroding trust. It leads to legal consequences, tarnishes reputations, and stunts personal growth. Avoiding plagiarism preserves credibility, fosters creativity, and upholds ethical standards. Educational institutions and search engines penalize plagiarized content, impacting SEO rankings and visibility. Embracing originality ensures sustainable success and fosters a trustworthy reputation online.

Can AI-generated content be considered plagiarism-free?

AI-generated content, such as text produced by language models like GPT-3, GPT-4, and Gemini, can be considered plagiarism-free if properly used and cited. However, using AI writing tools like ChatGPT without adequate citation can lead to unintentional plagiarism. It's vital to use an AI content detector to ensure originality. High-quality tools that use advanced detection models, like Quetext’s AI Detector, can help identify AI-generated text, minimizing the risk of false positives and ensuring that submissions are plagiarism-free.

How does AI technology impact plagiarism detection?

AI-generated content and AI-generated text are now common, making AI content detection crucial. Detecting AI technology, including advanced algorithms and language models like ChatGPT-3 and GPT-4, has significantly improved plagiarism detection. Tools like Quetext’s AI detector tool utilize these advanced models to compare submitted text against vast databases, ensuring accurate detection of potential plagiarism and copy written by artificial intelligence or generative ai.

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Fast and Reliable Results with Quetext

check an essay for plagiarism

Plagiarism Checker

A completely free and accurate online plagiarism detector. Simply copy and paste to detect copied content.

check an essay for plagiarism

Get your Weekly Plan Only in

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The free version does not support more than 1000 words.

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Plagiarism Checker “ PRO ” the most trustworthy plagiarism detection tool

Our mission is to fulfill everyone's NEEDS in plagiarism detection. Most user-friendly interface with plenty of exclusive FEATURES to execute efficiency & reliability mission.

Plagiarism Checker Online for Multiple Languages

Why choose our plagiarism checker.

Our best free plagiarism checker is totally free. It doesn’t charge you anything which means you can conduct as many searches as you like. All you need to do is just copy and paste your content.

This plagiarism checker software offers you a deep and thorough check. With deep search, you get extra levels of plagiarism search and additional result details.

If you don’t want to copy and paste your text, you can alternatively upload the page URL or the file for a quick and free plagiarism check.

Consequences of Plagiarism

Today, copyrighted content has become a constant problem in educational institutions. Students create many assignments using a lot of research in a short period. Many schools/institutions, such as Duke University, have judicial affairs offices. They will review each case of plagiarism and fix penalties.

Most of the outcomes of plagiarism occur once the replication is caught. Institutions have noted that students who duplicate data often fail to learn research and writing skills. Once they leave the institution, all those students lose the ability to create original content because they have only cheated before.

Professional

Countless journalists, academics, writers, and creators have had their reputations damaged by plagiarism accusations. Not only do plagiarists disrupt their ongoing work by getting fired or terminated. They also find it difficult to get work in the future. A particularly egregious instance of plagiarism, or worse, can destroy a person's professional image. It also forces them to change careers to avoid the stigma of plagiarism.

Apart from all the professional and personal difficulties that may arise in certain cases, there are also legal consequences. Copying copyrighted material for profit may result in the plagiarist having to pay some financial losses. In some cases, copying data can subject the plagiarist to criminal prosecution. And the punishment can range from charges to imprisonment.

So, before submitting any content, do a plagiarism check once to see if you have copied it or not. It can protect you from all kinds of harm. You won't have to wait long for results using a duplicate content checker. You can take advantage of this plagiarism checker free and save yourself from embarrassment.

How it detects?

Plagiarism Detector is the free and an intelligent and essay checker software. It doesn't matter if you are a student or a professional, everyone can have benefit from this likewise.

Now, with the help of our plagiarism detector, you can check if your content that you are just seconds away from publishing and considering its uniqueness. If you are web owner, then it is very important to have a plagiarism-free content on your website if you wish to attract maximum traffic. This is the best Free Plagiarism Checker that you will find online as it works the same way as Google.

Built with thorough research on the needs of our customers, all the essential strategies and techniques have been implemented to make results 100% accurate and authentic for everyone.

We analyzed that any anti-plagiarism software is mostly used by students or teacher to check the essays, papers, and reports that they submit or that have been submitted to them. Because plagiarism is unacceptable no matter what type it is . That is why we have particularly designed a system that offers free plagiarism detection which helps students and teachers to check their duplicate content.

Teachers, as well as students, should discourage plagiarism .

You can try our plagiarism detector now, and you will know that it is rightfully the free online plagiarism checker with percentage!

Importance of plagiarism Detector

If you aim at a higher Authority on SERP (Search Engine Results Page) then never take the risk of publishing a heavily duplicated content.

Plagiarized or duplicated content can lead to lower page rank. If you are caught up in a situation where your article, blog or web page content is not entirely unique, then there is a comparatively higher risk of getting blacklisted by search engines especially Google. You can utilize the free plagiarism detection service offered by our similarity checker to check the content from your own website to make sure that no one has stolen the content from your website. Apart from SEO (Search Engine Optimization), our free plagiarism finder can also be utilized by students and teachers for academic uses.

Beware! It is a double-edged sword .

How the plagiarism scanner Works?

It is very simple!

Plagiarism scanner is an intelligent free and most accurate software.

The content you enter is analyzed on the basis of its

  • lexical frequencies,,
  • word-choice,,
  • matching phrases,,
🌐  Multilingual 150+ Languages
✔️  Working Lexical frequencies Contextual Analysis Fuzzy Matching
💯  Accuracy 100%
✈️  Speed Immediate checking
🔁  Check Counts Unlimited

and many other important factors. Your given text is mapped into our internal network, and then it is compared against different databases and the entire internet. We have designed our algorithm to especially ignore statistically common phrases to provide a better and more valuable search for potential plagiarism in the text. Once the plagiarism test completes, the results will appear below along with the match percentage that our best plagiarism tool has found.

The article you have entered is carefully scanned, and so is the entire internet. If complete plagiarized sentences are found, the plagiarism detector will identify the original source of that content and show to you. All you have to do is copy and paste the content in the text box and then click on “Check Plagiarism” button.

It is as simple as it sounds. (How to check plagiarism)

This plagiarism checker free online for teachers, students, and writers will run your text through its database of millions of sites to show you the best plagiarism free report with the detailed results. Alternatively, you can either enter the URL of the website for which you want to conduct a plagiarism check or you can upload the files. Whether it is an article, essay or blog, a thorough sentence check will be conducted for your text in order to give you the most reliable and accurate results.

Online Plagiarism Checker

Understanding the results.

Beside the text box, you are shown the percentage for Checked, Unique, and Plagiarized.

Phrases or sentences shown in the results below are the ones that our plagiarism detector has identified as plagiarized and already exist online, along with the matched percentage. These are the links and by clicking on the “Match Text” you will be redirected to the original source where you can see yourself the plagiarized text. When the plagiarism test is finished, you’ll also be given an exact percentage of uniqueness and plagiarism of your text. However, if your content is completely unique then you will get a congratulations message:

Plagiarism Checker API

The plagiarism checker API allows everyone to add plagiarism detection functionality to their software or applications. Our flexible system allows you to customize your settings to fit your needs. It can grow with your business or personal needs. Most importantly, our reliable services give you peace of mind knowing your data is safe and protected.

Identify Copied Material with Anti Plagiarism Software

Plagiarism can appear in different forms, but the end outcome is always the same: the plagiarist stole something from another person. Plagiarism refers to using some other person’s ideas and information without acknowledging that specific person as the source. Similar to all other forms of theft, plagiarism also has many disadvantages associated with it.

It can take place in both intentional, when you try to pass someone’s content as your own, or unintentional when you forget to mention the source for your work correctly. In spite of the kind, piracy always has consequences when it is discovered. Mostly, the punishment of accidental copying is temporary. Because ascertaining unintentional plagiarism requires knowledge of intent, the overall prestige of the plagiarist becomes the deciding factor.

Plagiarism can occur in any shape either textual or pictorial. So we not only scan the document for the copyrights but also check the duplication for images. You can also perform Reverse Image Search to look for the best matching photos. By using advance image recognition algorithms, it will bring out the matching results from all over the internet and search engines.

Before jumping to direct consequences, here’s a brief detail of how can you make sure your work is not matching with any source. Loads of information, millions of text documents, is attainable on the internet now. So, if you think you can check manually, then you are wrong. No matter, how many articles you read or how many hours you spend, you can never be sure. Hence, the alternative best way you can take help from is a free plagiarism detector. There are many such tools readily available on the internet, providing best services to users. Majority of them, search your material against billions of contents and underlines each sentence which resembles with another posted article.

Free plagiarism checker

Check for plagiarism and get accurate reports that you can trust with our professional online plagiarism checker.

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Our EssayPro writers undergo extensive testing to ensure only the best are hired. We have a large pool of editors who can check your paper for plagiarism and on top of that refine it by eliminating grammar and syntax mistakes. If you have confidence in your writing skills and only need targeted edits, this service is the way to go.

Rewriting previously written essays to improve grades can be a time-consuming task for students. It requires a creative approach and good writing skills, Let us save you from the stress and upgrade your essays to perfection. Our expert writers not only eliminate plagiarism but also do a complete reconstruction of your essay according to your instructions for the best possible outcome.

Free plagiarism checker for you to enjoy

Essay plagiarism checker free with accurate percentage.

When dealing with an academic task, a student often needs to check essay for plagiarism before submitting it to their professor. Many colleges and high schools set a certain limit on plagiarised content in essays, research papers, theses, and other academic papers. So, it's crucial to know the exact percentage of unique content to avoid any issues with your educator.

Unfortunately, a typical plagiarism checker free for students doesn't show the precise ratio of the original text in an essay. It simply states whether the whole text has any traces of plagiarism. This is utterly misleading and unhelpful. Even the simplest citation will make your text not 100% original, not to mention improper quotes and self-plagiarism. So, you'll be left with only one choice - to rewrite your essay from scratch in an attempt to get fully original content. Considering how complex and lengthy formatting rules for scholars are, crafting a 100% unique text without making a single citation or self-plagiarism mistake becomes a nearly impossible task.

That's why finding out an exact percentage of non-unique text in their paper is the number one priority for many students. And our professional online plagiarism checker can help you with that. Find out an accurate plagiarism score for your essay in mere minutes and impress your strict professor with superior writing!

Using our plagiarism detector is also nothing close to rocket science. All you have to do is:

  • Copy your text
  • Paste your paper into the designated tab
  • Get prompt and precise results

Moreover, you can easily see which parts of your paper need fixing since our tool highlights plagiarized content. And if you need assistance with editing, proofreading, or crafting a new paper, our writing pros are always there for you! Our wordsmiths will fix your task promptly and efficiently, delivering nothing less than an academic masterpiece.

Free plagiarism checker for students

If you are a college or university student, it can be easy to accidentally include borrowed information in your academic papers, even if you wrote it from scratch. To ensure that your work is completely original, using a plagiarism checker is recommended. Our free online plagiarism checker for students is a quick and easy tool that can help you avoid unintentional plagiarism and ensure that your work is unique.

Our tool scans your paper against thousands of sources and highlights any areas of similarity, allowing you to correct them before submitting your work. You can even see a uniqueness percentage for your paper, so you know how much work needs to be done before your deadline.

Using our plagiarism checker is simple and free, so you don't have to waste time manually checking your work or worry about paying for a service. With just a few clicks, you can have peace of mind knowing that your work is completely original and that you won't be penalized for any unintentional plagiarism.

Additionally, using a plagiarism checker can help you avoid paraphrasing errors that can also result in plagiarism. Our tool can help ensure that you are using your sources correctly and can save you from potential academic consequences.

In summary, our plagiarism checker for students is a convenient and reliable tool that can help you achieve academic success by ensuring the originality of your work. Don't risk unintentional plagiarism - use our free tool today and feel confident in the uniqueness of your academic papers.

Why choose our online plagiarism checker?

If you are worried about the originality of your academic paper, we offer a professional plagiarism checker to give you confidence in the uniqueness of your work. Our free online tool guarantees the best check, and here are the key advantages of using it:

First and foremost, it is completely free. We understand the value of original and unique works and believe that students should not have to pay to check for plagiarism.

Our anti-plagiarism checker works fast and is safe to use. Our advanced algorithm analyzes your text quickly, saving you time and ensuring the security of your work.

We use the latest and best software to provide an advanced check that helps you receive high-quality papers. You can be sure that our checker will detect even the slightest similarity in your text.

Our plagiarism checker is user-friendly and easy to use. You can check your work in a few clicks, without wasting time or effort.

Many students have already confirmed that our free tool is a great and convenient feature that has helped them detect and fix errors that could have led to failure. With our checker, you will no longer need to search for another scanner.

In conclusion, our plagiarism checker is the best option for students who want to ensure the originality and quality of their work. Our tool is fast, safe, user-friendly, and free, making it the perfect choice for any student who wants to submit a unique and high-quality paper.

Are there consequences for using free plagiarism checkers?

Plagiarism is the act of copying someone else's work without proper attribution, whether intentional or not. Failing to acknowledge the author's work or presenting it as one's own is considered plagiarism. Even minor paraphrasing can result in lower grades and other severe consequences, such as expulsion from school or even damaging one's professional reputation.

It is crucial to understand the principles of academic integrity and honesty and to always check your work for plagiarism. This is especially important for students working on dissertations, theses, or other significant academic projects that require original research.

In addition to the ethical considerations, there are legal consequences for plagiarism. In some cases, it may even lead to litigation. Therefore, it is essential to be mindful of plagiarism and avoid it at all costs.

To avoid unintentional plagiarism, one should learn how to properly cite and reference sources, paraphrase effectively, and avoid copying and pasting. It is also important to use plagiarism checker tools to ensure the originality and uniqueness of one's work.

In summary, plagiarism is a serious offense that can have far-reaching consequences. It is crucial to understand its implications, adhere to academic integrity principles, and always check your work for plagiarism to avoid any negative consequences.

To further ensure your academic integrity, familiarizing yourself with different ways to avoid plagiarism can significantly enhance the originality of your work.

How does the online plagiarism checker function?

3-step plagiarism checker

check an essay for plagiarism

Copy your documents and paste them into the free plagiarism checker

To check for plagiarism in a completed text, simply copy and paste it into the designated box on a plagiarism tool or website, select appropriate settings (if needed), and click "check for plagiarism". The process is quick and easy, taking only a few moments.

Wait for the scan

After clicking on "check for plagiarism", the system will scan your text and compare it with various sources to detect similarities. Typically, the time required depends on the length of the text. It only takes five minutes or less for our plagiarism checker to deliver percentage-based results.

check an essay for plagiarism

Get the results within seconds

After the system completes the analysis, you will be directed to the reporting page. Here you will receive the general report on your work, including the uniqueness percentage and a list of sources where similarities were detected. On top of that, it also highlights any overlaps found.

Get your paper crafted from the ground up

Frequently asked questions, is it possible to check my paper for plagiarism for free, is it possible to identify plagiarism without using a plagiarism checker, can plagiarism be punished, is it possible to use the online plagiarism checker without paying, can you check my essay for plagiarism for free as i'm a student, is using a plagiarism checker safe, is the free online plagiarism checker same as the one that's used by my uni, what to expect from your essay checker for plagiarism with percentage.

Free Plagiarism Checker

Catch accidental plagiarism with Scribbr, in partnership with Turnitin, using the same software as most universities and publishers

Drag & drop your document

check an essay for plagiarism

What you get with a premium plagiarism check

Plagiarism report

Plagiarism Checker

Catch accidental plagiarism with high accuracy with Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker in partnership with Turnitin.

AI detector

AI Detector

Detect AI-generated content, like ChatGPT3.5 and GPT4, with Scribbr’s AI Detector.

Grammar checked document

AI Proofreader

Find and fix spelling and grammar issues with Scribbr’s AI Proofreader.

* Only available when uploading an English .docx (Word) document

Plagiarism checker comparison graph

Rely on the most accurate plagiarism checker of 2023

Scribbr’s plagiarism checker, in partnership with Turnitin, detects plagiarism more accurately than other popular tools — particularly when texts are edited. This makes it the go-to plagiarism checker for students in the UK.

See test results

Free plagiarism risk analysis

Find out if your writing contains potential plagiarism

The free plagiarism checker, in partnership with Turnitin, will give you a heads-up if your writing is similar to the content in our database.

📚 Largest database 99B web pages & 8M publications
🌎 Supported languages 20 languages

See a list of top matching sources

View your top 5 matching sources

The Sources Overview shows you the top five sources that match your writing. You can see the domain, database, and the number of matching words for each source. It’s important to cite these sources!

Spelling meta report

Identify spelling and grammar issues in your document

In addition to checking for plagiarism, powerful AI software scans your English text for spelling and grammar issues. The free check gives an overview of the issues per category.

Submit your paper with confidence, knowing it’s free of plagiarism

Make your writing plagiarism-free with the premium plagiarism checker.

Get a precise plagiarism percentage

Get a precise similarity percentage

The premium plagiarism checker provides you with an accurate similarity score that tells you what percentage of your paper is not original.

Review similarities for plagiarism

Review highlighted text snippets for missing citations

Similarities in your document are highlighted for quick and easy reviewing. Each color corresponds to a source in the Sources Overview.

Plagiarism report with side-by-side comparison

Compare your writing to the original text side by side

Use the comparison feature to see how similar your writing is to the original without leaving the plagiarism checker report.

Check for self-plagiarism by uploading unpublished works

Check for self-plagiarism by uploading previous assignments

Upload previous assignments or a classmate’s paper to catch (self-)plagiarism that is otherwise difficult to detect by regular plagiarism checkers.

check an essay for plagiarism

Review your spelling and grammar corrections in Word

Writing issues are corrected automatically when you upload a Word document. To review the corrections, you can download a Word document with Track Changes.

Price per document

Prices are per check, not a subscription

Volume pricing available for institutions. Get in touch.

Request volume pricing

Institutions interested in buying more than 50 plagiarism checks can request a discounted price. Please fill in the form below.

Name * Email * Institution Name * Institution’s website * Country * Phone number Give an indication of how many checks you need * Please indicate how you want to use the checks * Depending of the size of your request, you will be contacted by a representative of either Scribbr or Turnitin. * Required

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Excellent Review score

Scribbr’s plagiarism checker is rated 4.9 out of 5 based on 13,623 reviews.

Privacy guarantee

Privacy guarantee

Submissions will never be added to our content database. Therefore, no other plagiarism checker will see your text.

Turnitin Similarity Report

Scribbr's plagiarism checker is perfect for you if you:

  • Are a student writing an essay or paper
  • Value the confidentiality of your submissions
  • Prefer an accurate plagiarism checker
  • Want to compare your work against publications
  • Can benefit from an AI Detector

This plagiarism checker is not for you if you:

  • Are a copywriter, SEO, or business owner
  • Need to check lots of documents for plagiarism

Start for free

The go-to plagiarism checker for students and academics

University applicant

University applicants

Ace your personal statement for your university application.

Compare your UCAS personal statement against billions of webpages, including other essays.

  • Avoid having your personal statement flagged or rejected for accidental plagiarism.
  • Make a great first impression on the admissions officer.

Student

Submit your assignments with confidence.

Detect plagiarism using software similar to what most universities use.

  • Spot missing citations and improperly quoted or paraphrased content.
  • Avoid grade penalties or academic probation resulting from accidental plagiarism.

Academic

Take your journal submission to the next level.

Compare your submission to millions of scholarly publications.

  • Protect your reputation as a scholar.
  • Get published by the journal of your choice.

Student running a plagiarism check

You don't need a plagiarism checker, right?

You would never copy-and-paste someone else’s work, you’re great at paraphrasing, and you always keep a tidy list of your sources handy.

But what about accidental plagiarism ? It’s more common than you think! Maybe you paraphrased a little too closely, or forgot that last citation or set of quotation marks.

Even if you did it by accident, plagiarism is still a serious offense. You may fail your course, or be placed on academic probation. The risks just aren’t worth it.

Scribbr & academic integrity

Scribbr is committed to protecting academic integrity. Our plagiarism checker, AI Detector , APA Reference Generator, proofreading services , and free Knowledge Base content are designed to help educate and guide students in avoiding unintentional plagiarism.

We make every effort to prevent our software from being used for fraudulent or manipulative purposes.

Ask our team

Want to contact us directly? No problem. We are always here for you.

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Frequently asked questions

Extensive testing proves that Scribbr’s plagiarism checker is one of the most accurate plagiarism checkers on the market in 2022.

The software detects everything from exact word matches to synonym swapping. It also has access to a full range of source types, including open- and restricted-access journal articles, theses and dissertations, websites, PDFs, and news articles.

Scribbr’s  Plagiarism Checker is powered by elements of Turnitin’s Similarity Checker , namely the plagiarism detection software and the Internet Archive and Premium Scholarly Publications content databases .

The add-on AI detector is powered by Scribbr’s proprietary software.

Your document will be compared to the world’s largest and fastest-growing content database , containing over:

  • 99.3 billion current and historical webpages
  • 8 million publications from more than 1,700 publishers such as Springer, IEEE , Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, and Taylor & Francis

Note: Scribbr does not have access to Turnitin’s global database with student papers. Only your university can add and compare submissions to this database.

At the moment we do not offer a monthly subscription for the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker. Plagiarism checks can be bought separately — prices depend on the size of your document.

Small document (up to 7,499 words) £13.95
Normal document (7,500-49,999 words) £22.95
Large document (50,000+ words) £31.95

Your writing stays private. Your submissions to Scribbr are not published in any public database, so no other plagiarism checker (including those used by universities) will see them.

The free report tells you if your text contains potential plagiarism and other writing issues. The premium report gives you the resources you need to review issues in detail and resolve them.

Free report Premium report (from $19.95)

Generating your (free or premium) plagiarism report takes between 1 and 10 minutes, depending on the document size.

In that time, your document is compared to the world’s largest content database, with over 99 billion webpages and 8 million publications.

Scribbr’s plagiarism checker offers complete support for 20 languages, including English, Spanish, German, Arabic, and Dutch.

The add-on AI Detector and AI Proofreader are only available in English.

The complete list of supported languages:

If your university uses Turnitin, the result will be very similar to what you see at Scribbr.

The only possible difference is that your university may compare your submission to a private database containing previously submitted student papers. Scribbr does not have access to these private databases (and neither do other plagiarism checkers).

Luckily, many papers, theses, and dissertations are also published in public databases that Scribbr does have access to.

Wipe out plagiarism & grammar errors

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Personalized Writing Help When You Need it

Unintentional plagiarism, grammar mistakes, and uncited sources  can turn what you thought was a good paper into a poor one. When you’re writing a paper the last thing you want is for your message to get lost due to incorrect punctuation or confusing sentence structure. You know that the great ideas in your head would make for a standout paper, if only you could get them written clearly on the page. If this struggle sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

Great ideas may be an essential part of high-quality writing, but they’re not the only component. Excellent papers and essays clearly express strong ideas with good grammar, proper punctuation, spot-on spelling, and thorough, careful citations. While this may sound like a lot, your teachers and professors are grading you on your skills as both a writer and a researcher, which means your assignments will require an ethical and attentive approach. Luckily, there is no shortage of available tools to help you along your way.

You could use a plagiarism checker free, though, these tools often lack grammatical support. Given the high stakes and rigorous requirements, the aid of a plagiarism checker without the needed support of a grammar checker could mean the difference between an “A” paper and a “C” or even “D” paper.

Thankfully, the EasyBib Plus plagiarism tool provides all-in-one support to cover all your bases. Our premium essay checker is convenient, easy to use, and includes access to a grammar and spell checker, plus a plagiarism checker. With a single scan, you’ll receive personalized feedback to help identify potentially missing citations and help improve your sentence structure, punctuation, grammar, and more.

Not sure if that noun is spelled correctly, or if the preposition at the end of your sentence is grammatically correct? The EasyBib Plus plagiarism tool is your one-stop shop to help check plagiarism, get grammatical suggestions, correct spelling and punctuation errors, and help create polished papers you can be proud to turn in. And, we haven’t told you the best part yet: you can try our tool free and scan your work for grammar suggestions right now!

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check an essay for plagiarism

A Grammar Check for Peace of Mind

You know that grammar plays a significant role in your assignments. Not only does it factor into your overall grade, but without clear and precise language, your ideas can lose their impact or might even be misunderstood entirely. Still, with so many different parts of speech and rules to learn and apply, it’s not uncommon to get them mixed up and find yourself questioning your knowledge now and again:

Can you use an adverb to modify a noun? (No. You need an adjective for that.)

Well, can you use it to modify a pronoun ? (Still no.)

What do they modify, then? (Almost everything else. Fun, right?)

Ugh. (That was an interjection .)

Does this have to be so difficult? (Nope!)

Scanning your paper with the EasyBib Plus writing tool delivers more than the basic punctuation and spell check functions that come standard in word processing programs. You’ll receive immediate, targeted feedback that can help improve the sentence structure and style of your writing. Not only can this help ensure that you don’t lose points off your grade for grammatical errors such as mismatched verb tense, but it can also help to clarify your meaning and strengthen your arguments by eliminating confusing punctuation and run-on sentences that confuse readers.

Reviewing your work to correct errors and refine the flow of your writing is a critical part of the revision process for novices and novelists alike. Even the most conscientious of wordsmiths might make mistakes, such as using a conjunctive adverb in place of a coordinating conjunction or pairing a plural determiner with an uncountable word. They likely appreciate a subscription-based or free grammar check as much as a beginning writer. That’s why the EasyBib Plus writing tool is designed for all writers, from students who are still learning the fundamentals to published professionals who get paid by the word.

The EasyBib Plus writing tool provides quick, targeted feedback that you can use to help improve your writing immediately. Also, our free resource library is available 24/7, just like the rest of our tools, to help you brush up on the areas that challenge you the most (Conjunctive what? Uncountable who?) That means you can continue to sharpen your skills and improve your writing over time, which will help make finishing your next project easier.

Ready to give your paper a boost? Sign up for EasyBib Plus or scan a paper right now for a free spell check—it’s easy!Just upload or copy and paste your paper to the online grammar check tool and, in a matter of seconds, you’ll be able to receive up to 5 feedback cards so you can begin polishing your draft.

To learn more about proofreading tools, you can find more info here. Or, for more tips on grammar, punctuation, and style, check out this useful reference .

Why is Grammar So Important, Anyway?

Why is grammar important? As long as others know what you mean, does it really matter if you use proper grammar? These are age-old questions, but the answers remain unchanged. Grammar is important for many reasons:

Communication:  Communication is about more than merely listening and talking. We communicate in myriad ways: with our voices, our mannerisms, our facial expressions, our actions, and frequently, our written words. Written communication is just as important as all the other ways we broadcast our thoughts and feelings. Unlike our other communication methods, though, written communication leaves a record. While most of us relax our style when talking to or texting friends, the fact remains that more formal venues require a more formal tone. Proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation are a necessary element of professional and academic writing, so running your work through a spelling and grammar check before you submit it is an absolute must.

Clarity:  Expressing your thoughts, ideas, and opinions is an uphill battle when you communicate them with less-than-stellar punctuation, spelling, and grammar. A missing or misplaced comma, for example, can entirely change your meaning:

  • Call me Ishmael = My name is Ishmael.
  • Call me, Ishmael = I want Ishmael to call me.

Spelling errors can result in similarly muddled meaning:

  • Her shoes perfectly complemented her dress. = Her shoes and dress go well together.
  • Her shoes perfectly complimented her dress. = Her shoes can both speak and engage in flattery.

Grammar deficiencies such as a dangling modifier yield similarly confusing results:

  • I saw the girl’s purple backpack in the library. = The purple backpack belonging to the girl is in the library; I saw it.
  • I saw the purple girl’s backpack in the library. = You know the girl who mysteriously turned purple? I saw her backpack in the library. This week has not been easy on her.

Credibility: Establishing your credibility is critical whether you’re writing for school or business. Proving that you can reliably communicate using proper grammar is essential to establishing and maintaining the trust of your teachers, professors, readers, customers, and colleagues.

To learn even more about the importance of English grammar in writing, check here .

What Happens After I Upload My Paper?

Once you upload a paper, the EasyBib Plus grammar checker scans your text and highlights grammar issues within your document so you can see it in context. For users running a grammar check and spell check using the grammar check free tool, up to the first 5 issues are shown. For subscription subscribers, all of the areas that require your review will be highlighted once the scan is complete.

No matter which version of the tool you’re using, your feedback will include detailed explanations so you can understand why the text was flagged. Other highlighted areas will include examples of how the issues can be fixed. Some will include a detailed explanation as to why the issue was flagged. This personalized feedback allows you to make an educated decision about whether to edit your text or dismiss the suggestion, so you’re always in control of your final draft.

Subscription users also have the plagiarism checker at their disposal when scanning their papers for style and grammar suggestions. Just as with our other writing tools, when you use the tool to check plagiarism, changes are never made without your review, so you are always in the driver’s seat. You can review each highlighted area as well as the sources of matching text and will always be given a choice to either accept or ignore both citation and grammar suggestions.

Whether you are a student or a professional, the EasyBib Plus tools are powerful allies that can help you improve your paper, establish credibility as a writer, and maintain an ethical writing process.

Try our checker free for 3 days to see what you think*. Trust us; you’ll wonder how you got along so far without it!

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check an essay for plagiarism

Check for Unintentional Plagiarism

Persistent use of the best grammar checker and spell checker you can find will help to shape up the style and substance of your composition. However, to ensure the integrity of your work and root out unintentional instances of academic dishonesty, you’ll also need to incorporate a subscription-based or free plagiarism checker for students.

The ability to scan your paper and check plagiarism and grammar before submitting your work is an invaluable tool for students. It’s so valuable, in fact, that students are not the only ones who consistently use this type of software.

Many teachers and professors use a service to ensure that student papers are original and include properly formatted and sourced citations for all reference materials. For some, this may be a consistent element of their grading process, while others may utilize one only when they feel there is a reason to do so.

What Exactly Does a Plagiarism Checker Do?

If you’ve used an online plagiarism checker before, you may be familiar with the process that these tools employ. For those who have never used one, it can be helpful to understand how these tools work and what you should expect as a result of using one.

The most basic free tools will scan your paper and provide you with a percentage that indicates how much of your work is original. This feature can be useful to a point, as some instructors and institutions set a percentage for the amount of similar text that is considered acceptable. This policy does not mean that they are lenient about academic dishonesty but, instead, that they recognize that similar or even matching word choice is not always an indicator of copying.

However, some schools do not tolerate any form of incremental plagiarism, period. In these institutions, “check paper for plagiarism” is likely a standard action when grading all papers.

With a free plagiarism checker, the percentage of word-for-word plagiarism in your text may be the only feedback you receive. Moreover, some of these providers may wade in unethical waters, and offer essay writing services in conjunction with their checking services. This is why many students and teachers prefer subscription-based checkers that focus on integrity, such as the EasyBib writing tools.

With our premium tools, you get more than just supporting proof that your paper is original and in your own words. Your writing is scanned for potentially matching text and areas that needs your attention is highlighted. We’ll provide you with the source of the matching text so you can review it and decide how to proceed. If you agree that a citation is needed, our citation tools and resources will provide you with the information you need to help format and insert the new sources in your text as well as your works cited page.

How Does the EasyBib Plus Online Plagiarism Checker Work?

The EasyBib Plus writing tool provides an all-in-one spell check, grammar review, and plagiarism checker that not only helps you with the paper you’re writing now but enables you to gain new knowledge and improve your writing for the future, too.

Our essay checker searches online for phrases, sentences, or passages that are similar to those in your paper. If it returns matching text, this may indicate that you have passages that are missing citations.

Just as with many checkers, our tool will tell you how many instances of matching text it finds in your paper. Our plagiarism tool is designed to do more than most free tools, however.

When a portion of your paper is flagged for review, we provide you with the source that it matches. As with our online spell check tool, you have the power to review each area and choose how to proceed. If you decide to cite the flagged text, you can review the suggested source and access our citation tools to help create a proper citation and start building a bibliography for your paper. Or, you may determine that no citation is needed, in which case it’s simple to dismiss the suggestion and continue to the next section.

If you’re unsure about how to proceed, our library of resources can help you learn more and make an educated decision. In this way, you gain more than just the ability to correct your work; over time, you can learn how to avoid plagiarism altogether.

Reasons Your Teacher May Run Your Paper Through a Plagiarism Detector

As stated previously, your teachers and professors grade papers with a fixed process that includes “check paper for plagiarism” as a standard, across-the-board action. Others may check for plagiarism only when they feel there is cause to do so. There are a few red flags that may stand out to them while reviewing a paper that would lead to their running a plagiarism check, including:

Style/Voice:  Most teachers are familiar with the style and voice that you use in your writing. While most will hope that the feedback they provide when grading your work will help you to improve problem areas over time, a paper or essay that has a dramatically different style or voice than the work you’ve previously submitted can be a red flag.

Inconsistency:  Changes in the font, font size, formality, formatting, and more may indicate that portions of a paper have been copied and pasted. If these inconsistent passages are not presented as quotations or don’t include citations, this may further indicate to your teacher that there’s plagiarism in the paper.

Old References:  Part of a well-researched paper is verifying the legitimacy and relevance of your sources. While some older references may be acceptable depending on the topic, if all of your sources are outdated, it may lead your teacher to believe that you’ve recycled your own work or someone else’s.

Looking for a checker to try? With EasyBib Plus you get unlimited checks to give you peace of mind when turning in your papers!

What is Plagiarism?

If you’re looking for a free online plagiarism checker , you’re already aware that it’s not something you want to be found in your papers. However, you may still be wondering: what does plagiarism mean? It’s a reasonable question and one that merits exploring. After all, some of the actions and circumstances that fall within the plagiarism definition come as a surprise to those who only learn that they’ve committed them after it’s too late.

So what is plagiarism? To define plagiarism in the most basic sense, you might say that it is taking someone else’s ideas and words and passing them off as your own.

If your goal is avoiding plagiarism entirely, you’ll need to go beyond the basics to thoroughly define plagiarism, recognize it, and keep clear of it. Some examples of plagiarism that students find surprising include forgotten citations, poor paraphrasing, and re-submitting your own work in whole or in part for more than one assignment. This useful article provides more help in recognizing and understanding the different forms that academic dishonesty can take.

Of course, using your own words and ideas does not count as plagiarism, nor does using common knowledge . Basically, common knowledge is information that is well known by the average person. Examples of common knowledge:

  • there are 12 months in a year
  • the freezing point of Celsius is zero degrees
  • Socrates was a Greek philosopher

So should you only include your original thoughts and common knowledge in your papers? Of course not! Research-based assignments are meant to demonstrate your skills as a researcher, after all, as well as your ability to build upon the work of others to formulate new ideas. To avoid accidentally committing an act that falls within the plagiarism definition when you’re using another person’s words or ideas, though, you need to give them proper credit. This means you’ll need to clearly identify direct quotations or properly paraphrase them when including them in your paper.

Regardless of your approach, you’ll also need to cite your sources according to the style your professor specifies. Generally, you will use MLA format for the arts and humanities and APA format for the sciences, but it’s always best to check with your instructor when you’re unsure.

If you know what style to use but still aren’t sure how to create your citations, don’t fret! Our library of resources includes free guides to help you learn about various styles so you can properly structure and place them. And our premium tools not only help you check grammar, spelling, and originality in your papers, but subscribers also enjoy access to our citation creation tools!

What are the Different Types of Plagiarism?

In addition to the question “what is plagiarism,” you may also be wondering, “why do students plagiarize?” While some students do intentionally plagiarize because they believe they can pass off someone else’s work as their own to avoid spending time on their assignments, many others do so accidentally. They may not understand how broad the plagiarism definition is or they haven’t learned how to research and cite their sources properly. That is why it is vital to recognize plagiarism in all of its forms if you wish to ensure the integrity of your work.

Examples of plagiarism & How to prevent it

Direct plagiarism:

Intentionally copying another person’s work without including a citation that gives credit to the source. When most students are asked to identify potential plagiarism examples and behaviors, this direct and deliberate act is what they think of first.

  • Prevention: If you use an idea or quote from another source, cite it in the text. Make it clear that it was not your own words. 

Incremental plagiarism:

Copying parts of another person’s work, such as phrases, sentences, or paragraphs without crediting the source. When deciding which tools to use to check a paper for plagiarism , instructors often seek out those that will identify incremental forms as well as instances of direct copying and similar phrasing.

  • Prevention : Decide to either directly quote the phrases or sentences you want to use, or write a good paraphrase. In both cases, be sure to add a citation. Using a plagiarism checker could also help you identify problematic passages.

Self-plagiarism:

Academic self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits the same paper or parts of a paper for more than one assignment. When your instructors are grading your papers, they’re assessing your research and writing skills in the present. When you submit work that you completed in the past, they are both unable to evaluate your current skills and unaware that you haven’t completed the assignment.

  • Prevention: Write a new paper for each assignment you’re assigned. If you feel strongly that your past work could enhance your new paper, speak to your instructor and ask for permission first.

Misleading citations:

Including a citation for a quote or idea that misrepresents the source material. This can occur if a student does not understand the reference they are citing; if a student includes a citation for a disreputable source; or the source material simply does not align with the idea or argument that the student has attributed to it.

  • Prevention: Carefully review your assignment to understand it. As you research, take the time to evaluate each source notes . Remember, it’s better to have quality citations over an abundance of citations.

Invented sources:

If a reference in a student’s bibliography is found not to exist, it is considered an invented source. This may occur if a student couldn’t find a reputable source to back their argument, or if they needed to include additional references to meet the requirements of the assignment and chose to take an unethical shortcut rather than completing the required amount of research. No matter the reason, this behavior ultimately hurts them in the long run. Not only will they fail to gain the experience they need to conduct research in the future properly, but they’ll also experience significant consequences if they’re caught.

  • Prevention: Set aside time to do proper research so you can find enough sources. Start creating a list of sources as you’re researching and take good notes. This will help you keep track of your sources so none are forgotten. If you do end up forgetting where a quote came from, a paper checker could help you pinpoint the original source. 

Patchwriting/Spinning:

Patchwriting is often confused with paraphrasing, but there’s a significant difference. When you paraphrase, you demonstrate that you understand the topic well enough to restate it in your own words. When you patchwrite or spin, it is more akin to a word-swapping game; there’s no need to understand the subject, merely to have access to a thesaurus so you can substitute enough synonyms to mask the source material. This can be intentional, but it may also be a result of having a poor understanding of how to paraphrase.

  • Prevention: Using your own words, write down the key points of the phrase or idea, and put them together in a sentence. Be sure to include a citation as well. 

A good way to test if you’re patchwriting or paraphrasing is to remove your sources from view. If you can write about what you’ve read without looking at the source material, you likely understand it well enough to paraphrase it. If you have to review the source material with each new sentence or consult a thesaurus while writing about it (except when you’re adding direct quotations), you may be spinning your sources instead of paraphrasing them.

Academic Integrity Policies and Statements

If you’re still uncertain about what counts as plagiarism, look for your school’s/ organization’s policies on academic integrity and plagiarism. The policies of academic institutions usually cover what is considered plagiarism, the consequences of committing it, and how to avoid it. One great example is Purdue University’s Academic Integrity statement .

What are the Consequences of Plagiarism?

No matter the setting, plagiarism is not taken lightly, and the consequences can be significant. For a good reason, too! Whether in an academic or professional setting, the plagiarism consequences reflect the seriousness of the act, which is ultimately a form of theft that hurts everyone involved.

Just as with the theft of a tangible object, there can be legal punishments for plagiarism. It is, after all, a form of copyright infringement in many instances. A quick search for plagiarism articles will reveal that professional instances of intellectual theft have resulted in civil lawsuits and can even be criminally prosecuted under rare circumstances. In addition to the possible legal consequences, professionals may lose their jobs or have to start over in a new field after their acts of fraud are uncovered.

As a student, you’re likely to wonder what happens if you plagiarize in college or high school. While there will almost always be consequences for this behavior, there is no one-size-fits-all plagiarism sentence. Depending on the circumstances, academic dishonesty could result in outcomes such as:

  • You might get a zero for the assignment in which the infringement occurred.
  • You may receive a failing grade for the class. If it is a required course, this could leave you without enough credits to move on to the next level until you can repeat it and, in some instances, postpone graduation.
  • You may be expelled from your school or university.

The academic dishonesty may be noted on your transcript, which can lead to you not getting into your preferred college, graduate school, or Ph.D. program in the future.

Nobody wants to be known as a fraud or to have a reputation for dishonesty follow them through their career. And, given the consequences that can extend beyond just their reputation, it’s no wonder that professional and academic writers who wish to avoid them take the time to understand the complete definition of plagiarism and run their work through a plagiarism checker before sending it out into the world.

Even the vigilant can fall prey to inferior tools, unfortunately. Before selecting a plagiarism checker, you should understand how they work and what they can (and cannot) detect.

How We Check for Plagiarism

When exploring how to check for plagiarism, most students and professionals conclude that including a checking tool in their revision process is not only helpful but necessary. When you consider the Herculean task of checking each line of your paper against the text of each of your resources, the benefits of a checker are clear. Moreover, this manual approach would only alert you to matching text in the sources you’re aware of, after all, and leaves the sources you haven’t reviewed untouched.

But, hang on. Why would sources you haven’t reviewed factor into your review? The answer to this lies in the plagiarism definition you learned above. What is plagiarism? It’s presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, intentionally or otherwise. It is not uncommon to uncover an idea while you’re researching a topic and later misremember it as your own. This might even occur years after you originally came across it.

You might wonder: how can plagiarism be avoided if you have to account for the source of every thought you include in your work? A few exceptions minimize the scope of this. Common knowledge about your topic does not need to be supported by a citation, nor does knowledge that you gained through your personal experience. Using a subscription-based or free plagiarism checker will help you locate any passages that may fall into these categories so you can review them and decide for yourself whether a citation is needed.

EasyBib Plus writing tools provide easy, convenient, and reliable support to help you find potentially missed citations and can help you improve your paper into a high-quality paper with integrity. Simply upload your paper, select the checker, then sit back and relax as the site scans your document. In mere moments, we’ll search the web for passages of similar text and highlight duplicate content for your review.

Regardless of the tools you use to help you revise and polish your work, it’s ultimately your responsibility to ensure that you’re writing and submitting ethical work. That’s why our tools go beyond the basics and require your participation. The tool never automatically makes changes to your paper, but only flags sections that may need your attention and provides you with the matching source so you can to make an educated decision.

If you find that a citation is needed, our citation tools can help you create properly formatted citations and develop a complete bibliography. And, if you review the passage and determine that the match is coincidental, you can dismiss the alert and move on to the next.

Seamless Citation Creation

Professional writers and students alike can find creating citations incredibly confusing. Nevertheless, they are an integral part of a well-written and researched paper and a requirement in almost all academic settings. But, have you ever wondered why they are so important? Citations really do have a purpose—other than driving us crazy— that make it necessary always to cite our sources.

We cite our sources for a few important reasons:

We need to give credit where credit is due. When you use a quote from someone else’s work, you need to give credit for using their words and ideas. Research is often based on the works and ideas of others. However, to include the words and ideas of another without giving them proper credit is to plagiarize, even if the act was unintentional.

In addition, showing that you’ve done proper research by including in text & parenthetical citations and a comprehensive list of sources to back up your arguments gives your work a layer of credibility that can help you earn the trust of your reader or teacher.

Readers can find the sources you used.  When you’re writing high school or undergraduate papers, your only readers may be your instructors and peers. However, including citations at every level of writing helps to ensure that anyone who reads your work can access your sources to check their accuracy, learn more about your topic, and further their own research.

Sources can take your research and learning to the next level, too. When you are conducting research on a topic, checking the works cited or annotated bibliographies prepared by your sources can lead you down new avenues in your research to further develop your ideas and help you write your papers.

Correctly utilizing citations gives strength to your thoughts and opinions. Understanding the value of citations does not, unfortunately, make them any easier to create. We know how confusing it can be, but don’t throw in the towel on learning how to cite websites in MLA , create your APA citation website references, or format your works cited —this is where we come in!

While a free online plagiarism detector may tell you how much of your work is unoriginal and may even identify the passages that meet their plagiarize definition, a premium EasyBib Plus plagiarism checker account also gives you access to our powerful citation resources and generator so you can:

Scan your papers with the plagiarism tool to check for plagiarism-free work before you submit.

Review flagged passages to determine if they meet the plagiarism definition and create unlimited citations in APA format and MLA format for anything fitting the plagiarism meaning. Need more styles ? Check out our regular citation generator for thousands of choices and free resources to help you learn how to create an APA parenthetical citation , APA book citation , APA works cited , and so much more!

Build a full bibliography for your paper right along with your parenthetical or in-text citations, which can save you hours of work along the way compared to manually creating and formatting them.

How Else Do We Help You Improve Your Paper?

The EasyBib Plus plagiarism detector helps you check your content or paper for text that may be missing a citation—which may fall within the definition of plagiarism—to help ensure you don’t accidentally plagiarize. It also includes grammar check and spelling check tools to help identify errors and suggest grammatical tweaks that could help to elevate the level of your writing.

Running a plagiarism check couldn’t be easier! Just upload your paper to the online proofreader, and in a few moments we’ll have your writing and citing suggestions. And, there’s no need to worry about your paper after it’s been scanned.

Run a Grammar and Spell Check for Free!

There’s no denying that your schoolwork can be challenging at times, and your assignments can lead to some late nights even when you’ve started them early. The last thing you want is to submit assignments that don’t reflect your best effort, but it can occasionally be quite the juggling act to get everything done on time.

Why not let our plagiarism checker free up space on your calendar by helping you revise your papers quickly and efficiently? The EasyBib Plus paper checker is your one-stop shop to check for plagiarism, create citations, spot spelling mistakes, and receive feedback on your grammar and style.

When you proofread and do a manual spelling check on work that you’ve written, you’re more likely to overlook mistakes. This is even more likely if you’re pressed for time or trying to complete several different assignments at once. There are tricks to help minimize this, such as reading your work aloud to identify poor grammar or reading each sentence backward to find spelling errors. When time is of the essence, though, these solutions aren’t the most convenient or useful options. That’s why many students seek the assistance of online tools that will run a grammar and plagiarism check on their work.

Are you asking yourself, “ How do I check my grammar online ?” We’ve got the perfect checker for you! Our advanced tools help you find and correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. Our targeted feedback and free writing and citing resources help you learn as you go to improve your writing over time.

The best part? You can use our grammar and writing tools any time of the day, any day of the year for! Looking to try it? Just upload or copy and paste your text into our online proofreader for a free grammar check with up to 5 suggestions, or sign up for EasyBib Plus today! EasyBib Plus gives you use of the plagiarism checker and unlimited access to suggestions that can help improve your spelling, sentence structure, punctuation, writing style, and grammar.

Published February 3, 2019. Updated April 9, 2020.

Written and edited by Michele Kirschenbaum and Melissa DeVrieze Meyer . Michele is a school library media specialist and the in-house librarian at EasyBib. You can find her here on Twitter. Melissa is a professional writer and editor based in New Jersey. She writes for academic brands and independent publishers about writing, grammar, and literature, and creates study and curriculum materials for ESL learners. You can find her on Twitter .

Visit our EasyBib Twitter feed to discover more citing tips, fun grammar facts, and the latest product updates.

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How does ProWritingAid's essay checker work?

Your goal in essay writing is to convey your message as best as possible. ProWritingAid's essay checker is the first step toward doing this.

Get rid of spelling errors

ProWritingAid's essay checker will show you what it thinks are spelling errors and present you with possible corrections. If a word is flagged and it's actually spelled correctly, you can always choose to ignore the suggestion.

Fix grammar errors

Professors aren't fans of poor grammar because it interrupts your message and makes your essay hard to understand. ProWritingAid will run a grammar check on your paper to ensure that your message is precise and is being communicated the way you intended.

Get rid of punctuation mistakes

A missing period or comma here and there may not seem that serious, but you'll lose marks for punctuation errors. Run ProWritingAid's essay checker to use the correct punctuation marks every time and elevate your writing.

Improve readability

Make sure that in the grand scheme, your language is not too complicated. The essay checker's built-in Readability report will show if your essay is easy or hard to read. It specifically zones in on paragraphs that might be difficult to read so you can review them.

What else can the essay checker do?

The editing tool analyzes your text and highlights a variety of key writing issues, such as overused words, incohesive sentence structures, punctuation issues, repeated phrases, and inconsistencies.

You don't need to drown your essay in words just to meet the word count. ProWritingAid's essay checker will help to make your words more effective. You'll get to construct your arguments and make sure that every word you use builds toward a meaningful conclusion.

Transition words help organize your ideas by showing the relationship between them. The essay checker has a built-in Transition report that highlights and shows the percentage of transitions used in your essay. Use the results to add transitions where necessary.

An engaging essay has sentences of varying lengths. Don't bore your professor with long, rambling sentences. The essay checker will show you where you need to break long sentences into shorter sentences or add more sentence length variation.

Generally, in scholarly writing, with its emphasis on precision and clarity, the active voice is preferred. However, the passive voice is acceptable in some instances. When you run your essay through ProWritingAid's essay checker, you get feedback on whether you're using the passive or active voice to convey your idea.

There are specific academic power verbs, like appraise , investigate , debunk , support , etc., that can add more impact to your argument by giving a more positive and confident tone. The essay checker will check your writing for power verbs and notify you if you have less than three throughout your essay.

It's easy to get attached to certain phrases and use them as crutches in your essays, but this gives the impression of boring and repetitive writing. The essay checker will highlight your repeats and suggest contextually relevant alternatives.

Gain access to in-house blog reports on citations, how to write a thesis statement, how to write a conclusion, and more. Venture into a world of resources specific to your academic needs.

What kinds of papers does ProWritingAid correct?

No matter what you're writing, ProWritingAid will adapt and show you where your edits are needed most.

  • Argumentative
  • Descriptive
  • Textual analysis
  • Lab reports
  • Case studies
  • Literature reviews
  • Presentations
  • Dissertations
  • Research papers

Professors and students love using ProWritingAid

If you're an English teacher, you need to take a look at this tool - it reinforces what you're teaching, highlights strengths and weaknesses, and makes it easier to personalize instruction.

prowritingaid customer

Jennifer Gonzales

Only reason I managed to get an A in all my freshman composition classes.

ProWritingAid customer

Chris Layton

Great tool for academic work. Easy to use, and the reports and summary evaluation of your documents in several categories is very useful. So much more than spelling and grammar!

prowritingaid customer

Debra Callender

Questions & Answers

1. how do i use the essay checker online tool.

You can either copy and paste your essay in the essay checker field or upload your essay from your computer. Your suggestions will show once you enter text. You'll see a number of possible grammar and spelling issues. Sign up for free to get unlimited suggestions to improve your writing style, grammar, and sentence structure. Avoid unintentional plagiarism with a premium account.

2. Does the essay checker work with British English and American English?

The essay checker works with both British English and American English. Just choose the one you would like to use and your corrections will reflect this.

3. Is using an essay checker cheating?

No. The essay checker won't ever write the essay for you. It will point out possible edits and advise you on changes you need to make. You have full autonomy and get to decide which changes to accept.

4. Will the essay checker autocorrect my work?

The essay writing power remains in your hands. You choose which suggestions you want to accept, and you can ignore those that you don't think apply.

5. Is there a student discount?

Students who have an eligible student email address can get 20% off ProWritingAid Premium. You can apply for a student discount through Student App Centre .

6. Does ProWritingAid have a plagiarism checker?

Yes. ProWritingAid's plagiarism checker will check your work against over a billion webpages, published works, and academic papers, so you can be sure of its originality. Find out more about pricing for plagiarism checks here .

A good grade is closer than you think

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Check Plagiarism

Check plagiarism and verify the originality of your content effortlessly by using our plagiarism checker. Simply copy and paste your text to detect any instances of plagiarism.  

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  • Matched Sources
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No. File Unique % Plagiarised % View Report

How to use Plagiarism Checker free?

To check plagiarism of your content by using our plagiarism detector online, follow the below instructions:

Type or paste your text into the input box.

Click on the “Check Plagiarism” button.

Check the results in the output section. You can also download the resultant file.

Our similarity checker will scan the given content against millions of online resources and generate an accurate plagiarism report with percentages. With Deep-Search technology, free plagiarism checker can also detect instances of plagiarism accurately.

AI Plagiarism Checker vs. Traditional Plagiarism Detector

The AI plagiarism checker utilizes advanced technologies to detect plagiarism from any kind of text accurately. It is designed to check plagiarism from content that has been tweaked using synonyms. In addition, the free plagiarism checker also possesses the ability to hunt instances of accidental plagiarism, as they are equally destructive to your credibility. On the other hand, a traditional plagiarism detector can only locate the phrases and sentences that have been copied word-to-word.

Safe Plagiarism Checking.
💯  Quality Guaranteed Plagiarism Detection with 99% Accuracy
🈐    Multi-Lingual Supports 13+ Languages
📃  Extensive reporting Plagiarism Checker with percentage
⌛  Real-time Comparison Check for plagiarism in Real-time

Features Offered By Our Plagiarism Detector

Check-Plagiarism offers a wide range of features to make the plagiarism detection process super-easy for its users. Some of its prominent features include the following:

Exclusive Database Access

The free online plagiarism checker provides access to an exclusive database that can detect plagiarism efficiently. It cross-checks your document against the data contained on billions of web pages which ensures 100% accurate analysis and detection of plagiarism.

Fast & Accurate

Our plagiarism checker scans your text against billions of web pages. The superfast AI technology shows you results in a matter of seconds.    

Content Duplication Highlight

This duplication checker highlights the plagiarized content in red color to make it easier for you to check for plagiarism in your work.

100% Safe & Secure

All files and documents checked with our free plagiarism checker online are 100% safe & secure. We do not save or share your data with any third party.    

Multiple files support

You can check copied content in up to five documents at once (supported formats: doc, docx, txt, and pdf).

Easy to Use

Our online plagiarism checker has a very easy-to-use interface. It provides a simple process to check for content similarities. Users from low educational backgrounds can also use our plagiarism checker.    

Enhanced Reporting with the percentage

Our plagiarism detector provides a complete report with percentages. It shows you to check which phrases in your content are unique and which are plagiarized which is beneficial for reporting.

Sentence based checking

Our copyright checker scans every single sentence and compares it with all online resources to detect plagiarism. So not even a single sentence will escape plagiarism scanning.

Reports Sharing

After the plagiarism check, you can get a detailed plagiarism report that you can easily share wherever you want.  

Exclude or Include any URL for Duplication

If you want to check plagiarism in your published content, you can simply copy the URL of the web page and conduct a duplication test.

Content Comparison

The AI plagiarism checker offers an advanced feature that Compare texts for plagiarism . If you are having doubts about the assignments submitted by learners, you can upload their documents to this tool and figure out if they have replicated content from one another.

  Relevant Tools

  • Paraphrasing Tool
  • Article Rewriter
  • Word Count & Character Count
  • Citation Generator
  • Text Compare
  • Grammar Checker
  • Text Summarizer

Free Plagiarism Checker Online Users

Our online plagiarism checker is widely used and loved by thousands of students, teachers, and content writers. We provide super-fast plagiarism detection solutions for colleges, universities, and all other educational institutes.

Students use it to check their papers, assignments and thesis for plagiarism. Plagiarised content is considered a form of academic dishonesty. This means that if a student submits a paper that includes plagiarized material, they could face serious consequences , such as failing the assignment or the entire course or even being expelled from school.

Teachers use our free plagiarism checker to ensure that their students are submitting original work. Our originality checker can help teachers quickly identify plagiarism in student work so they can take appropriate action.

By using our plagiarism detector, teachers can

Ensure academic integrity: By checking for plagiarism, teachers can ensure that their students are submitting original work and not cheating.

Promote original thinking: teachers can encourage their students to think critically and independently to develop their ideas.

Prevent grade inflation: If plagiarized work is undetected, it can lead to grade inflation that can damage the integrity of the institution. Check-Plagiarism also provides matched sources, so it helps to cite sources in your document. Use our citation generator to create APA, MLA, and Chicago formats.

Writers use this plagiarism detector:

To ensure originality:

Our originality checker helps writers to ensure that their work is original and not copied from other sources.

To identify and correct mistakes:

Writers can identify and correct any unintentional mistakes, such as failing to properly cite a source.

To improve credibility:

Authors can establish their credibility as trustworthy sources of information by making sure their work is original.

Webmasters use this originality checker to make sure their content is plagiarism-free because

  • Plagiarized content can damage the reputation and credibility of a website.
  • Google has clear policies on plagiarized content and penalizes websites that contain copied content.
  • It can lead to legal problems If the original content is protected by copyright.

Educational institutes

Colleges and universities can integrate our tool using Plagiarism APIs .

Law firms can use plagiarism checker free to protect their clients' documents.

Check more details about how to avoid plagiarism .

plagiarism checker

Frequently Asked Questions

  what is considered plagiarism.

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"According to Oxford: “Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgment.”

It involves:

1. Copying and pasting someone else's text

2. Paraphrasing someone else's work without proper attribution

3. Using someone else's ideas without giving them credit

4. Using someone else's images, videos, or other media without permission

5. Submitting someone else's work, such as a paper or project, as your own

  Is it plagiarism if you copy and paste but cite the source?

Presenting someone’s idea as your own is considered plagiarism. If you copy and paste but cite the source with proper formatting, then it's not plagiarism.

  Is the usage of plagiarism detector Illegal?

Educational institutions highly recommend any plagiarism detector to prevent copying of others’ work. Even research work is not considered authoritative without a plagiarism test. So, using an originality report checker is legal and necessary.

  What Devices Does the Plagiarism Checker Online Support?

The plagiarism checker online supports all kinds of devices, including desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. Since it’s a web-based utility, you can access and use it from any browser by just connecting to a stable internet connection.

  Is there a Word Limit for Checking Plagiarism?

Yes! There is a limit of 1000 words for checking plagiarism. However, if your document contains more words, then you can divide it into parts and conduct multiple checks, as there is no limit to the number of times you can check for plagiarism.

  Does The Online Plagiarism Checker Support Multiple Languages?

Yes! The plagiarism checker supports multiple languages, including English, Indonesian, French, Dutch, Russian, German, and Swedish.

  How Secure is the Plagiarism Detector in Terms of Data Privacy?

Plagiarism Detector is 100% safe and secure in terms of data privacy. Once a plagiarism check is processed, the content is automatically removed from our database.

  Can the Plagiarism Checker Detect Paraphrased Content?

Yes! This advanced AI plagiarism checker is smart enough to detect content that has been paraphrased from another source. Its AI-based technology allows it to detect patterns and language similarities to figure out whether a piece of text is 100% unique or rephrased from existing content.

  Is this Plagiarism Checker Detect Plagiarism in Multiple Documents?

Yes! The plagiarism checker is capable of detecting plagiarism in multiple documents.

We Cover Multiple Platforms

Our plagiarism-checking process supports one of the most popular platforms, WordPress. You can check for plagiarism of your content directly from your WordPress admin panel. Just download our plagiarism checker free plugin and start using it. Check Plagiarism also supports educational institutions through our APIs. Universities, colleges, and other educational institutes & organisations can integrate our APIs to detect plagiarized content on their end. Our plagiarism tool works accurately on other platforms as well.    

A WordPress plugin is available to check plagiarism directly from the admin panel.

Configure your plagiarism software with our APIs, to check directly from your server.

How it Works

Our free plagiarism checker works by using advanced database software to scan for similarities between your text and existing text. Their accuracy is determined by two factors: the size of the database and the advanced algorithm.

Comparing your content

All results are displayed in real-time. You can compare your plagiarised content with any of the matched URLs with just one click.    

Happy Customers

Our best free plagiarism checker is loved by 400,000+ customers worldwide. We have positive feedback from customers of all categories. Look at those reviews below.

Our Customers Feedback

We have 70,000+ happy clients, including Masters, Students, Teachers, and publishers around the world. A Positive previous record is enough for new users to understand that we have the most accurate plagiarism detector..

Nadia Moeen

This free online plagiarism detector is amazing; it checks my content in seconds with very accurate results. According to me, it's the best plagiarism detection software.

Justin

I am a student, and I use this tool regularly to check plagiarism for in my papers. Best plagiarism checker online for students.

Moosa Ali

I used their APIs to configure my college website so that students can check plagiarism free for their papers directly from the college website.

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check an essay for plagiarism

Free Online Plagiarism Checker

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Possible plagiarism detected!

If you submit this paper, your institution may take disciplinary measures against you. The content requires editing and modification of parts. We know how to make it unique.

This is weighted average of all matches in your text. For example, if half of your paper is 100% plagiarized, your score would be 50%

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Get a 100% accurate report from an advanced AI-powered writing assistant. Our plagiarism checker works with all common file formats.

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How to avoid plagiarism?

Proper citation style.

Avoid plagiarism by always listing the source and formatting it correctly when you are note-taking. Take care of the proper formatting and citation style when using content from outside sources.

Write on your own

Avoid borrowing and overusing large pieces of the content from outside sources, especially from Wikipedia. Write your own thoughts and use sources only to support your opinion (remember to cite it though!).

Rewriting Service

Plagiarism can get you expelled from your academic institution. Our professionals can take any assignment and rewrite it to be 100% unique.

Editing Service

CaPapersOwl expert can edit up to 50% of your content, proofread and polish your paper to make it plagiarism free and ready to use.

Writing Service

CaPapersOwl expert can rewrite your paper from scratch according to instructions and guidelines and make it plagiarism free and ready to use.

Suits your similarity index. Consider using it!

Plagiarism Checker Review

Get speed and uniqueness when you use the free Papersowl plagiarism checker that accepts an unlimited word count compared to other platforms.

Features Any Plagiarism Checker Papersowl Plagiarism Checker
Free
100% uniqueness
High-quality check
Swift Check
Identify original sources
No word limit
Available 24/7

Online Plagiarism Checker For Students

Writing an academic paper can be challenging when you’re not sure if it’s original enough to pass a plagiarism check. Of course, students take information from various sites before writing their own text. Sometimes, it just so happens that certain parts are very similar to your resources, making your professor think that you’ve just copied work from somewhere. That’s why it’s crucial for any modern college or university student to ensure that their work has 100% original content to maintain academic integrity.

Luckily, a free plagiarism checker online can solve this issue quickly and easily. Many cheap essay writing services use a plagiarism checker for research paper. However, students sometimes forget that they should too. But with so many options that pop up when you ask Google to “check my paper for plagiarism”, how do you choose the right one for detection? We’ve got the solution in the form of PapersOwl’s free plagiarism checker tool! Our simple tool makes it convenient to check any writing task without having to spend a dime. It works quickly and highly accurately, ensuring that you get the top grade you deserve. So, if you want to check plagiarism online before turning your task in, head over to our website and get started!

Accurate Check for Plagiarism with Percentage

Many students wishing to produce original content aren’t quite sure how to get an exact percentage of plagiarised text in their work. This percentage is important since many universities have a certain limit of non-unique words you can have in your essay for it to be considered okay. If your plagiarism search doesn’t give you the exact percentage, you can’t be sure if your assignment will go through or not.

When using a free plagiarism tool, it’s essential to have this data provided to you. Only when you have it can you decide which parts to change and which ones to chuck out to achieve your desired results. Plagiarized content is a big issue in modern educational institutions, so getting reliable and trustworthy results is vital. This is the most essential requirement when you check plagiarism.

PapersOwl’s plagiarism detection tool gives you all the information you need to fix plagiarized content. Whether you’ve fallen victim to accidental plagiarism or have tried to make your life easier by copying some text from different sources, you’ll get an accurate percentage with our plagiarism checker online. If you’re wondering how to check paper for plagiarism, it’s nothing complicated at all! Simply visit our site, paste your whole essay into the relevant text box or upload the text file, click on Check For Plagiarism, and you’ll get accurate plagiarism results in a matter of seconds. You’ll see the problematic parts with plagiarism detected highlighted, with links to where similar content exists. Our service with plagiarism detector will also give you the option to check my essay for plagiarism and then to hire a professional paper writer to fix your task quickly if you're busy with other things!

The Fastest Plagiarism Checker Online

Gaining insight into duplicate content only works if you get your results quickly. There are so many free plagiarism software online that promise to do the job for you. However, a lot of them are clunky, slow, and inaccurate. How can you produce original work without similarity detection you can trust?

PapersOwl stands out in this regard because it will detect plagiarism in seconds. This is a plagiarism scanner that’s able to perform a Swift Check to give you a uniqueness check right there and then. It also conducts a Deep Search, going through millions of sources on the internet to check for plagiarism. A document of about 1500 words takes only about 10 seconds to get processed! You get a clear plagiarism score of how much text is plagiarized and how much is original. All the sources that your essay matches are listed based on how much similarity there is in your academic writing. And on top of that, you get a handy Make It Unique button that’ll take you to an order page where you can ask our expert writers to rewrite your work and make it 100% unique.

All of this is done almost instantly, allowing students to continue do assignments without missing a beat. Not every plagiarism detection software works this quickly, making ours the best one you’ll ever use.

Plagiarism Checker Helps Boost Your Grade

A lot of students make the mistake of considering their papers automatically free from plagiarism. After all, they’ve written it themselves, so how could it be problematic? What they don’t realize is that it’s very easy to borrow some information mistakenly. Turning such a paper in can cause multiple problems, as your professor might think you haven’t done the work at all.

That is why you should always use a plagiarism scanner to test for plagiarized content in your college papers. Our online plagiarism checker for students is designed for this exact purpose. A simple, free plagiarism check could help you check plagiarism, fix any mistakes you see, and submit high-quality text that no one will question.

Our plagiarism detector has a lot going for it. It makes plagiarism detection easier than ever before. Unlike copying and pasting each passage individually into Google, simply upload the whole file into our plagiarism checker free for students, and you don’t have to do anything else. All the matches are highlighted so you know what to change.

The plagiarism test will give you a uniqueness percentage too. This will help you figure out where you stand and how much time you need to adjust anything if required. So, using our copyright checker online free to check your writing is essential. This way, you’ll submit the task only when you’re sure it meets the level of uniqueness required by your school. As a result, your grades will drastically improve when you check for plagiarism.

Free Tools for Writing

CaPapersOwl is a well-known provider of all types of academic papers.

  • Research paper
  • Dissertation

and many more

  • Stuck with a lot of homework assignments?
  • Worried about making your work 100% plagiarism free?
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How Does Plagiarism Checker Work?

  • If you already have a completed text, all you need is just to copy-paste the whole thing in the special box of the chosen plagiarism tool or website, choose suitable settings (if any), then press “check for plagiarism”. It is quite simple and takes just a few moments.
  • Once you have pressed “check for plagiarism”, the system will analyze your text and compare it with different sources to find similarities. As a rule, the duration depends on the text’s length. A standard free online plagiarism checker with percentage can give you the result within five minutes or less.
  • When the system finishes the work you will be transmitted to the reporting page – it contains the comprehensive report on your work, a percentage of its uniqueness, and a list of sources on which similarities were detected. Often, such tools also highlight the overlaps that were found.

As you can see, it is simple. However, for the best and reliable result you have to be careful. There are tons of programs and online tools that can be used but keep in mind that many of them work differently and not all are good for you. To be confident in the truthfulness of the received result, you need to select the best plagiarism checker because only a professional and high-quality software can detect all similarities and give you a reasoned assessment.

Polish your paper and get rid of plagiarism!

We’ll change up to 75% of your paper, edit and proofread it.

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Free Plagiarism Checker is rated 5.0 /5 based on 774 user reviews.

Want your voice to count in? Send us your review with all the details.

Advantages Of Plagiarism Checker By CaPapersOwl

Why choose us? Our service offers a professional online plagiarism checker with report that will provide you with a comprehensive report to make you confident in the 100% uniqueness of your paper. Our free plagiarism checker for students guarantees the best check and here are the key advantages of using our tool that prove this:

You don’t need to pay anything to check your paper for plagiarism because we know the value of original and unique works.

One of the main benefits of our antiplagiat checker online is that it works so fast that you will not even have enough time to make yourself a cup of coffee while it analyzes your text, and it is safe!

We use the latest and the best algorithms and software in order to provide you with an advanced check and help you receive the high-quality papers.

It is simple in use and won’t take much time!

Many students have already confirmed that our free tool is a great and convenient feature that helped them detect and fix errors that could lead to a failure. With us, you will no longer need to look for a different scanner!

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Plagiarism Checker FAQ

Can i check my essay for plagiarism free online, can i use papersowl plagiarism checker as a student for free, can i check my research paper for plagiarism for free, will the papersowl plagiarism report be the same as at my university, what are the consequences of plagiarism, why wait place an order right now.

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Empower students to do their best,

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Advance learning with an AI writing detection solution built for educators

Our advanced AI writing detection technology is highly reliable and proficient in distinguishing between AI- and human-written text and is specialized for student writing. What’s more, it’s integrated into your workflow for a seamless experience.

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Student success starts here

Uphold academic integrity.

Ensure original work from students and safeguard the value of writing.

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Assessments with transparency into AI usage

Flexible solutions enabling educators to design and deliver student assessments their way, while shaping AI-enhanced student writing with integrity and confidence.

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Foster original thinking

Help develop students’ original thinking skills with high-quality, actionable feedback that fits easily into teachers’ existing workflows.

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University of leeds widely adopts gradescope for online assessment.

With campuswide digital transformation in mind, rollout to thousands of faculty across disciplines took only two months, far quicker than anticipated.

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Keeping student and instructor needs at the core is key to upholding their rigorous standards of integrity while centering students in their learning.

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Give feedback and grade essays and long-form writing assignments with the tool that fosters writing excellence and academic integrity.

Originality

Check for existing as well as new forms of plagiarism - from text similarity and synonym swapping to contract cheating, AI writing, and AI paraphrasing.

Grade paper-based, bubble sheet, and code assignments faster than ever while giving more robust feedback and gaining valuable insights.

Address potential gaps in curriculum and assessment to prepare students for their careers and meet accreditation requirements.

This robust, comprehensive plagiarism checker fits seamlessly into existing workflows.

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Screen personal statements for potential plagiarism and ensure the highest level of integrity before matriculation.

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check an essay for plagiarism

The Plagiarism Spectrum 2.0 identifies twelve types of unoriginal work — both traditional forms of plagiarism and emerging trends. Understanding these forms of plagiarism supports the development of original thinking skills and helps students do their best, original work.

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Check Your Paper for Grammar and Unintentional Plagiarism

Welcome to your go-to review service for writing and citing with confidence! With the click of a button, BibMe Plus will review your paper for spelling, punctuation, verb tense, and other grammar issues so you can rest easy knowing that you’re submitting your best work.

After putting in the long hours to complete and submit an assignment on time, the last thing you want to learn is that a misspelled word or missing APA format or MLA format citation slipped past you and made its way into your final draft. Thankfully, your concerns about how to avoid plagiarism and typos can be a thing of the past with help from the right tools.

The BibMe Plus writing and citing tools go far beyond the basics of just proofreading; they also check your paper for plagiarism and help you build your biography quickly. Our tool scans your document for similar content on the Internet. If it encounters a passage that may need a citation, it flags it so you can review the passage, examine the source, and easily create and insert a citation if it’s needed. Try it out now!

Detect Unintentional Plagiarism

Finding out that you’ve accidentally infringed on another’s work the night before your assignment is due can leave you scrambling to rewrite sections of your paper, update your citations, and modify your bibliography at the eleventh hour.

If you find that you have accidentally plagiarized, whether on your first, fourth, or final draft, the BibMe Plus plagiarism tool has got you covered. When the BibMe Plus essay checker scans your paper, it searches the web for passages of similar text and highlights areas that may need attention. You have the power to review each flagged passage, as well as the suggested source, to determine if a citation is needed. If you conclude that you did not plagiarize, you can dismiss the plagiarism suggestion and move on to review the next.

After reviewing the suggested sources and identifying the passages which are missing citations, you can choose to start creating a proper citation right then and there. Not only can you create the citation, but you can both add it directly into your paper as an in-text citation as well as to your bibliography at the end of the paper.

All of the BibMe Plus writing and plagiarism check tools and guides are conveniently available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So it doesn’t matter if you finish your paper a week early, or a few hours before it is due; help is here whenever you need it.

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How Does the Plagiarism Checker Work?

Before subscription-based and free plagiarism checkers became readily available, figuring out how to check for plagiarism efficiently and effectively was a vexing problem. After all, reviewing every sentence by hand and comparing it all with the entirety of the world’s published works for potential plagiarism would be an arduous and potentially impossible task. That’s why instructors across all levels of education often rely on automated scanning tools (like a paid or free online plagiarism checker)  to check for plagiarism and help them identify instances of academic dishonesty; and why students should, too.

A free plagiarism checker may scan your paper for matching text and merely highlight the problem areas and return a percentage that reflects the amount of unoriginal writing it uncovered. The BibMe Plus paper checker offers a lot more than a free plagiarism site and gives you the information you need to make fully informed and intelligent decisions. Our plagiarism detector reveals any passages that require your review and returns the results to you, along with links to the source that contains matching text.

check an essay for plagiarism

About the Plagiarism Checker and Grammar Check Tools

You’ve done the research, drafted and revised your paper, and took care to credit all of your sources. The last step before you submit your paper is to proofread it in order to catch any missed errors or citations. A missing preposition , misused adverb , or misspelled interjection might escape you, but you’re unlikely to escape your teacher.

The BibMe Plus grammar checker gives you the feedback you need to help polish and improve your paper before you turn it in, not after. Not only does it flag spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, but it also gives you helpful tips that explain why the item is flagged so you can correct it, learn from it, and become a better writer.

A quick scan of your paper with the BibMe Plus plagiarism tool will also help to reveal any passages that, while perhaps unintentional, would still be considered plagiarizing. With tailored tips and an easy-to-use interface, our writing tool can help you unlock the magic to more natural, relaxed, and efficient editing to help ensure that your writing is clear, consistent, and properly cited.

The best part about it? Instant suggestions. No further reading , waiting for a human proofreader to respond to you, or racing across campus to get to the writing center before it closes.

The BibMe Plus grammar checker is available precisely when and where you need it. Conduct an on-demand spell check and grammar check at any time of day to validate the integrity of your work, and to generate any missing citations, all in a matter of seconds.

What is Plagiarism?

Committing academic dishonesty could lead to failing grades and even expulsion Knowing the potential consequences of plagiarism certainly makes it clear why you should avoid it. However, without a concrete definition, abstaining from it can prove challenging.

If you’re wondering, “What does plagiarism mean?” an easy to remember plagiarism definition is that it’s the act of using someone else’s work or ideas without giving them proper credit . It’s important to note that this definition is not bound by intention, and students may commit it both knowingly and unknowingly in a research paper .

Learning to define plagiarism is just the first step in developing the awareness necessary to avoid it. Identifying it in its various forms is the crucial next step, combined with consistently utilizing a subscription-based or free online plagiarism checker as a non-negotiable element of your paper-writing process.

Is your paper in need of a plagiarism check?  The BibMe Plus grammar check and plagiarism tool has got you covered! It’s designed to help spot those pesky places in your paper that may get red marks from your teacher, and it couldn’t be easier to use. Simply upload or paste your paper into the online plagiarism checker and, in no time at all, you’ll receive your results and can review any areas of concern. Try it now!

Not ready to check for plagiarism yet? Not to worry–the BibMe Plus plagiarism tool is available 24/7, so you can research, write, and revise when it’s best for your schedule.

Examples of Plagiarism

While it’s critical to understand the plagiarism definition as it’s broadly defined, it’s just as vital to learn the various ways it can occur if proactively preventing plagiarism is your goal.

Direct Plagiar ism:

Direct plagiarism is the deliberate act of copying another individual’s work or idea into an assignment without providing any type of acknowledgment. An example of this would be a student copying and pasting text from a source into their project, without using quotation marks or any kind of attribution.

Incremental Plagiarism : 

Copying bits and pieces from a single sentence and adding them into a project without attribution is a form of literary theft called incremental plagiarism . Just as with direct plagiarism, the incremental form attempts to disguise when a student or writer is taking credit for words and ideas that are not their own.

Patchwriting:

When a writer rephrases another author’s words (and it remains similar to the original words) and includes them without attribution in their work, it is known as patchwriting or mosaic writing .

How does it happen? Perhaps the writer rearranged words in the sentence, subbed out a few adjectives with synonyms, or used bits and pieces of the original wording and mixed it with their own. No matter the method, the original wording is often easy to spot as it peeks through its patchwork disguise.

Self-Plagiarism:

Plagiarizing another author’s words or ideas is an issue that most students recognize as wrong, but many are shocked to learn that reusing their own words can also fit the plagiarism definition. After all, they ask, how can I steal from myself?

Self-plagiarism is less about stealing and more about deceiving. When a student refurbishes or reuses work they completed in the past and turns it in a second time instead of completing new, original work, they are not honest with their teacher. Even reusing portions or paragraphs of your previous work without disclosing it is dishonest.

Do you have a paper you want to evaluate so you can confirm you’ve completed your research responsibly without plagiarizing (by accident)? A quick scan with the BibMe Plus plagiarism tool will help highlight phrases, sentences, or paragraphs in your paper that are found elsewhere on the internet. Each highlighted section has a prompt that will also ask you if you need a reference for it. Even better? If you review the source and determine that you need to add a citation, the plagiarism check tool will guide you through the steps of creating and inserting your reference. Pretty awesome, right? We think so too.

Lesser-Known Examples of Plagiarism

There are quite a few acts of intentional or unintentional dishonesty that students are surprised to learn also meet the definition of plagiarism.

Misleading Citations:

Including misleading citations is a form of academic dishonesty that is just as serious as direct infringement.

To understand how this fits into the plagiarize definition, consider the final result. If this type of plagiarism is undetected, the writer has deceived their audience and created a false belief about the words and ideas in the source material and its author. Whether it occurs intentionally or unintentionally, misleading citations draw a false link between an idea and a source and harm a student’s credibility.

Invented Sources:

While misleading references can occur as a result of not understanding your research, invented sources are more often the result of insufficient research or intentional deception. A student who can’t find a source to back up a point they want to make or who doesn’t want to commit the necessary time to ethically complete a paper might resort to including one or more invented sources in their bibliography. Whatever the cause, an invented source creates an illusion of credibility by tying an idea to a source that doesn’t exist.

An invented source can also be the result of poor note-taking. Perhaps you found the perfect quote to include in your introduction but forgot to write down the source. You know it’s wrong to plagiarize, but unless you invent a source you’ll have to remove the quote, right?

Wrong! Rather than choosing between removing the quote or inventing a reference, let the BibMe Plus plagiarism tool free up some time by helping you find the source and create an accurate citation. It’s quick and easy to scan your paper for plagiarism and, most importantly, it’s the ethical thing to do.

What Is Not Plagiarism

With the definition of plagiarism covering so much ground, it’s easy to raise the alarms and wonder if even the most innocent of acts might be construed as plagiarizing. Our advice? Don’t panic. Instead, sit back, relax, and check out these times when you can write your heart out, worry-free:

Common Knowledge:

Information that is widely known and accepted as fact is considered common knowledge. This can either be information that is known to most people in the world, in your country, in your state, or even just in your field of study, depending on the audience for your work. For example:

J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series.

This is a fact that is known widely enough that it is considered common knowledge and does not require a citation.

If your statement is considered common knowledge, you can include it in your paper without creating a citation. Keep in mind, though, that research papers showcase new ideas and analysis. Common knowledge is acceptable to include, but make sure you mix in information from outside sources as well.

Attributed Quote or Idea:

To include the ideas of others in your papers, you need only to attribute them to the original author to ensure you safely stay on the side of academic integrity. A proper paraphrase or direct quote with a citation is an excellent way to promote a point in your paper, while also demonstrating that you fully understand the author’s idea and have completed your research responsibly.

While most writers remember to add references for direct quotes, they can sometimes forget to include references when adding paraphrases into papers. A free plagiarism site may only help these writers pinpoint passages, but the BibMe Plus tool also helps you develop accurate references, in Chicago citation style and many others, in all types of situations. Quotes, paraphrases, full references: you name it, our plagiarism checker does it, and does it well.

Now that we’ve learned what is and isn’t plagiarism, let’s look at how to avoid it entirely.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

When you first learn to define plagiarism and realize how expansive the definition is, it can be intimidating to think about all the information you have to cite. That’s where the BibMe Plus online plagiarism tool comes in by helping to spot intentional and accidental plagiarism and flagging any matching text for your review.

When you use the plagiarism tool, or any of our resources, your paper always stays in your control. You’ll be given the potential source for each flagged passage so you can review it and decide whether to create a citation or dismiss the alert.

If you find that you need to add a citation, we’ve got your back. There are BibMe citing tools that can help guide you through the process of creating and styling a citation for your paper.

No matter what tools you use to help complete your work ethically, whether they’re free plagiarism tools or not, you are ultimately responsible for the work that you turn in. Remember, the best time to find errors or unintentional infringement is BEFORE you turn in your paper, not after. When in doubt, run a BibMe Plus plagiarism check to help you find any passages that you may have missed on your own, and use the free tools to create and insert your citations in more styles than even imaginable.

Spot Writing Mistakes

Unintentionally plagiarizing isn’t the only thing to worry about when writing and revising a paper—you also don’t want to lose points for small grammatical mistakes. Luckily, the BibMe Plus grammar checker and plagiarism tool will complete a spell check and review your document for style, punctuation, sentence structure, verb tense, pronoun -antecedent agreement, and more!

The BibMe Plus grammar check tool gives you more depth and insight than a standard spell checker. When you scan your paper, the proofreader highlights areas for your review and provides prompts to help you make an educated decision about how to proceed before accepting or ignoring each suggestion. And, since our grammar and spelling check gives definitions and explanations, it can help you improve your writing over time.

This service is for all writers, from those who have complete confidence in their writing ability to those who are just starting to write. No matter what your writing level, let the BibMe Plus grammar and plagiarism checker free up your time with a quick and thorough review that leaves no noun , determiner , or conjunction unchecked! Upload your paper now and start improving your writing today.

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How to Check an Essay for Plagiarism

Last Updated: October 10, 2023 References

This article was co-authored by César de León, M.Ed. . César de León is an Educational Leadership Consultant and currently serves as an Assistant Principal for the Austin Independent School District in Austin, TX. César specializes in education program development, curriculum improvement, student mentorship, social justice, equity leadership, and family and community engagement. He is passionate about eradicating inequities in schools for all children, especially those who have been historically underserved and marginalized. César holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education and Biology from Texas State University and a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from The University of Texas at Austin. This article has been viewed 91,938 times.

Plagiarism is the act of copying someone's work or ideas and claiming them as your own. It can even be copying your own written ideas. Essay plagiarism can be as simple as copying a paragraph from another source without citation, but it can also be as severe as copying entire pages from another written source, such as an essay, book, post, or article. To check for plagiarism, you need to know the common mistakes of plagiarists, as well as ways to confirm your suspicions.

Looking for Warning Signs in the Style and Grammar

Step 1 Compare the current essay to the student's normal style.

  • For instance, does this person usually make typos, but all of a sudden provides a perfectly clean essay? Does this person usually have incoherent or poorly formed concepts, then suddenly presents well-formulated statements?
  • Pull out the student’s portfolio of work from your class as a point of comparison. If you are suspicious, it maybe helpful to request copies of the student’s work from fellow teachers, too.

Step 2 Watch for changes in phrasing.

  • You may also note that points of view shift or that the student abruptly ends thoughts by switching to another topic.
  • Also, look for a weak start and end with an amazing middle, or some other mix of weak and strong areas. While this mixture can be a sign of a student struggling to shape an essay logically, it can also be a sign of plagiarism if a student has cut and pasted from various sources.

Step 3 Pay attention to shifts in spelling.

  • However, inconsistent spelling can also be the work of a poor writer.

Step 4 Notice if the person stays on topic.

  • For example, if you are teaching intro composition and the student is doing graduate-level work, you might want to check their essay more closely.

Step 7 Pay attention to similar phrases across all your papers.

  • For instance, you may find that when discussing a book like Frankenstein, a particular phrase such as "represents the monster within each of us," shows up across many papers.

Checking for Other Signs of Plagiarism

Step 1 Look for multiple citation styles.

  • Also, check if the citation even exists. In some cases, students make up the citations altogether, or claim that a chapter essay in a book exists when it doesn't. Perhaps you have access to the book in question and can check. Check Google Books, or look online for article citations.

Step 2 Check for old details.

  • Also check for old resources, which may indicate the paper is older.

Step 3 Watch for font changes.

Confirming Plagiarism

Step 1 Use a search engine.

  • If the text has been copied either verbatim or fairly closely, it's likely that the search engine will return some exact matches. Any online source that has the same text should appear on the first page of results.

Step 2 Plug the paper into a plagiarism checker.

  • Turnitin is one widely used site for plagiarism checking. You can also try Plagiarisma or Copyleaks.

Step 3 Confront the student if you suspect plagiarism.

  • If you're not 100 percent sure the student plagiarized, you can also use the meeting to determine if the student actually knows the material or not. [8] X Research source However, some introverted students may freeze up under these circumstances, whether they wrote the material or not, which makes it tricky sometimes to detect plagiarism.
  • Usually, if the student actually wrote the paper, they will know what they are talking about and will be able to talk about it thoroughly with you. And generally, if they didn’t write it themselves, they will not be able to do this.

Step 4 Determine the consequence if the student plagiarized.

  • For younger students, contact the student’s parents and follow up with any relevant administrators who need to be aware of the incident. Talking to older students directly is acceptable, and there will typically be repercussions at the school’s honor council.

Expert Q&A

César de León, M.Ed.

  • Show students how to avoid plagiarism. Don't just scare them off, as for some students, scare tactics can often result in defiance or a need to get one over on you. Give them the tools and pathways to write and research better. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • It will be harder to spot a person who pays someone to write an original essay or do an exam for them. Check to see whether your institution has checks in place to ensure that the right person turns up to sit exams and use your expectations of the student or class level to guide your own instincts about the work you're reading. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0

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  • ↑ César de León, M.Ed.. Educational Leadership Consultant. Expert Interview. 11 November 2020.
  • ↑ https://cmsw.mit.edu/writing-and-communication-center/resources/teachers/detect-plagiarism/
  • ↑ https://www.library.kent.edu/files/Library_Live_II_Ways_to_detect_Plagiarism.pdf
  • ↑ https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/writing/detectaddressplagiarism.html

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César de León, M.Ed.

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What Is Plagiarism? | Definition & Examples

Plagiarism means using someone else’s work without giving them proper credit. In academic writing, plagiarizing involves using words, ideas, or information from a source without citing it correctly. In practice, this can mean a few different things.

Copying parts of a text word for word, without quotation marks It makes it seem like these are your own words.
Paraphrasing a text by changing a few words or altering the sentence structure, without citing the source It makes it seem like you came up with the idea, when in fact you just rephrased someone else’s idea.
Giving incorrect information about a source If readers can’t find the cited source, they can’t check the information themselves.
Quoting so much from a source that it makes up the majority of your text Even with proper citations, you’re not making an original contribution if you rely so much on someone else’s words.
Reusing work you’ve submitted for a previous assignment, without citing yourself Even though it’s your own work, the reader should be informed that it’s not completely new but comes from previous research.
Submitting a text written entirely by someone else (e.g., a paper you bought from a ghostwriter) Not doing the work yourself is academically dishonest, undermines your learning, and is unfair to other students.

Table of contents

Common questions about plagiarism, more tools and resources for avoiding plagiarism, frequently asked questions about plagiarism.

It’s easy to understand why you shouldn’t buy essays, but students often struggle with the details of quoting , paraphrasing , and citing sources . Below, we address some questions and misconceptions students often have about plagiarism.

I need to quote and paraphrase a lot. Won’t my paper be full of distracting citations?

It’s true that some papers do feature a lot of citations. There are ways to reduce clutter by citing more efficiently, such as:

  • Combining multiple citations into one set of parentheses (usually separated by semicolons )
  • Not repeating the full citation when you cite the same source multiple times in a row
  • Using “ ibid. ” to indicate a repeated citation (in certain styles)
  • Omitting citations for information that is common knowledge

Do I need to cite a certain number of sources? Can citing too much be a bad thing?

There’s no fixed number of sources you should cite. Your use of sources should be based on strengthening your argument, not meeting a quota. A high number of citations isn’t inherently a good or bad thing. Some types of academic text (e.g., a literature review ) are more likely to cite a lot of sources than others.

When you do think you’ve cited too much, it’s worth considering whether you need all the information you’ve included. All information should directly contribute to your argument, not just be tangentially related.

One thing you should avoid is quoting too much. If large portions of your text consist of someone else’s words, it distracts from your own arguments. It’s usually better to paraphrase unless you’re specifically analyzing the language of the source (e.g., in literary analysis ).

Is it better to just avoid using sources so I don’t risk accidental plagiarism?

No, using sources is an essential part of academic writing . Academic research is an ongoing conversation between researchers. Drawing on other sources, and positioning your own ideas in relation to them, is not optional.

But it’s understandable to be concerned about plagiarism. If you’re worried about the possibility of accidental plagiarism, make sure to:

  • Quote and paraphrase sources correctly
  • Manage and cite your sources using a citation generator
  • Use a plagiarism checker before submitting your work to detect any problems
  • Use generative AI tools responsibly (outputs may be detected by an AI detector )

Is paraphrasing a kind of plagiarism?

No, paraphrasing is just a way of incorporating information from a source into your text by putting it into your own words. As long as you cite the source correctly, paraphrasing is the best way to incorporate information in most cases.

However, paraphrasing can be considered plagiarism if you:

  • Don’t cite the source of the information, or cite it incorrectly
  • Phrase the information in a way that’s too close to the original (e.g., just swapping out a couple of words instead of reformulating the sentence)

Scribbr offers a variety of tools and services designed to help you with citations and plagiarism checking, including the best plagiarism checker available.

Plagiarism Checker

Citation Generator Citation Checker Citation Editing

And you can check out the in-depth articles below to learn more about the different kinds of plagiarism, its consequences, and how to avoid it:

  • Types of plagiarism
  • Self-plagiarism
  • How to avoid plagiarism
  • Consequences of plagiarism
  • Academic integrity vs. academic dishonesty
  • Common knowledge
  • How plagiarism checkers work
  • Examples of plagiarism
  • Plagiarism resources for educators

The consequences of plagiarism vary depending on the type of plagiarism and the context in which it occurs. For example, submitting a whole paper by someone else will have the most severe consequences, while accidental citation errors are considered less serious.

If you’re a student, then you might fail the course, be suspended or expelled, or be obligated to attend a workshop on plagiarism. It depends on whether it’s your first offense or you’ve done it before.

As an academic or professional, plagiarizing seriously damages your reputation. You might also lose your research funding or your job, and you could even face legal consequences for copyright infringement.

Paraphrasing without crediting the original author is a form of plagiarism , because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

However, paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you correctly cite the source . This means including an in-text citation and a full reference, formatted according to your required citation style .

As well as citing, make sure that any paraphrased text is completely rewritten in your own words.

Accidental plagiarism is one of the most common examples of plagiarism . Perhaps you forgot to cite a source, or paraphrased something a bit too closely. Maybe you can’t remember where you got an idea from, and aren’t totally sure if it’s original or not.

These all count as plagiarism, even though you didn’t do it on purpose. When in doubt, make sure you’re citing your sources . Also consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.

Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.

Plagiarism can be detected by your professor or readers if the tone, formatting, or style of your text is different in different parts of your paper, or if they’re familiar with the plagiarized source.

Many universities also use plagiarism detection software like Turnitin’s, which compares your text to a large database of other sources, flagging any similarities that come up.

It can be easier than you think to commit plagiarism by accident. Consider using a plagiarism checker prior to submitting your paper to ensure you haven’t missed any citations.

The accuracy depends on the plagiarism checker you use. Per our in-depth research , Scribbr is the most accurate plagiarism checker. Many free plagiarism checkers fail to detect all plagiarism or falsely flag text as plagiarism.

Plagiarism checkers work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts. Their accuracy is determined by two factors: the algorithm (which recognizes the plagiarism) and the size of the database (with which your document is compared).

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