Plagiarism Detector for Students
Welcome to the best free plagiarism detector for students! The tool is especially helpful to check originality in essays, research papers, and literature reviews.
What Is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is when you take someone’s ideas for your work without giving them credit. The “idea” might be a piece of an article, book, website information, etc.
So, it is plagiarism if you:
- take a passage from someone's article
- present it as your idea.
You might be wondering how to avoid plagiarism. It is crucial to give credit to the original author or source even if you change the order of the information or paraphrase. The main idea is that you need to provide your reader with a way to find the source. The incorrect reference also counts as plagiarism.
Is Plagiarism a Crime?
Although plagiarism itself isn’t considered a crime, it can still lead to problems at your school or workplace.
However, depending on what you plagiarize, you might face bigger consequences. If the piece of text is copyrighted, you might face criminal charges.
How Do Colleges Check for Plagiarism?
Since plagiarism is prohibited in colleges, they check their students’ papers’ originality. Colleges use different software for plagiarism detection. Sometimes, colleges require students to check their papers themselves and attach the originality certificate to their work.
Is Paraphrasing a Plagiarism?
Paraphrasing is restating someone else’s idea using your own words. When paraphrasing, you need to deliver not only the main points but the whole idea. Paraphrasing is still considered plagiarism. Although you don’t copy someone else’s text word-by-word, you still use their idea. To avoid paraphrasing plagiarism, you need to cite the sources correctly.
What Is Self-Plagiarism?
Self-plagiarism is when you use the information from your previous work without giving yourself credit. Self-plagiarism also implies that you present an already submitted work as a new one. Although it’s your work, you still need to cite it correctly. Do it the same way as you reference any other author or source. Most importantly, do not reuse the same paper for a different assignment.
Types & Examples of Plagiarism
Let’s break down the most common examples of plagiarism. Here’s the example with Making Democracy Work by Robert D. Putnam. We’ll review different examples of plagiarism with the following passage.
Direct Plagiarism
Direct plagiarism is when you copy the information without changing any words. Although it might happen unintentionally, it is still considered one of the most serious kinds of plagiarism.
The parts of the text in the student's work taken from the original source are in italics.
| Student’s Work | Original Source |
| The new areas’ borders were equal to the territories of historical regions of the peninsula, including such celebrated principalities as Tuscany and Lombardy. Since the unification of Italy in 1870, however, its administrative structure had been highly centralized, modeled on Napoleonic France. For as long as anyone could remember, local officials had been closely controlled by prefects reporting directly to Rome. | The borders of the new governments largely corresponded to the territories of historic regions of the peninsula, including such celebrated principalities as Tuscany and Lombardy. Since the unification of Italy in 1870, however, its administrative structure had been highly centralized, modeled on Napoleonic France. For as long as anyone could remember, local officials had been closely controlled by prefects reporting directly to Rome. |
Mosaic Plagiarism
Mosaic plagiarism is when you mix some of the author’s words with yours. This kind of plagiarism is also called “patch writing” sometimes.
The parts of the text in the student's work taken from the original source are in italics.
| Student’s Work | Original Source |
| The new governments’ borders matched Lombardy, Tuscany, and the other territories of historic regions of the peninsula. After the unification of Italy in 1870, the government centralized the administrative structure. Rome has been managing local officials through the prefects ever since. | The borders of the new governments largely corresponded to the territories of historic regions of the peninsula, including such celebrated principalities as Tuscany and Lombardy. Since the unification of Italy in 1870, however, its administrative structure had been highly centralized, modeled on Napoleonic France. For as long as anyone could remember, local officials had been closely controlled by prefects reporting directly to Rome. |
Paraphrasing Plagiarism
As we mentioned before, paraphrasing still counts as plagiarism if you do not refer to a source. This kind of plagiarism is called paraphrasing plagiarism. It occurs when you don’t use direct quoting but reword the author’s text.
| Student’s Work | Original Source |
| The territory of ancient peninsula regions mainly matched to the new governments' borders, including well-known principalities like Tuscany and Lombardy. However, since 1870, when Italy was unified, the administrative system has been centralized, based after Napoleonic France. Prefects reporting directly to Rome had been in charge of local authorities for as long as anybody could remember. | The borders of the new governments largely corresponded to the territories of historic regions of the peninsula, including such celebrated principalities as Tuscany and Lombardy. Since the unification of Italy in 1870, however, its administrative structure had been highly centralized, modeled on Napoleonic France. For as long as anyone could remember, local officials had been closely controlled by prefects reporting directly to Rome. |
How to Avoid Plagiarism: 5 Best Methods
Here are five tricks on how to avoid plagiarism.
- Look from your point of view. Try to take a look at the text from your point of view. Think of the idea of the text and what you can add to it.
- Use paraphrasing. Use synonyms and change the order of ideas when paraphrasing. Remember that although you use paraphrasing, you still need to cite the source in your reference list.
- Quote. If there is no option but to copy the information, you can use quotations. Put the passage in quotes so that the reader will know that you are using someone else’s idea. Remember that you need to let the reader know who the original author is.
- Cite. If you are using someone else’s idea, it is crucial to use citations. Provide the details about the source you are using. Make sure to follow your guideline’s standard and include the source’s name, the author, the date, etc.
- Refer to a plagiarism checker. Sometimes people plagiarize unintentionally. So, there are plenty of different plagiarism detectors online you can use to check if your paper is original enough.
Plagiarism Checklist: 7 Questions to Ask Yourself
Here are seven questions you can ask yourself to check if there are any plagiarized similarities between your paper and the source.
- Is it your own idea? Did you come up with it yourself? Maybe it is a part of general knowledge that everyone knows?
- Did you refer to all the sources? Did you cite all the sources you directly quoted in your work? If you used any direct quotes, it is crucial to give credit to their authors.
- What about paraphrased sources? Did you cite all the sources you paraphrased, summarized, or used the information from? Even if you didn’t use direct quotes but paraphrased them, you need to give credit.
- What about images? Did you cite the artists whose images you used in your work? Graphics, pictures, or images should be cited too.
- Did you interpret the author’s idea correctly? Make sure to deliver the original idea correctly and don’t misinterpret it.
- Did you create an original layout? The outline should be original too. Try not to copy others’ paper organization.
- Did you make a reference list? Your reader should be able to refer to the source through your reference list.
If you answered YES to all the questions, you can be confident in your work. You either didn’t take others’ ideas or cited them accordingly.
If you answered NO to all the questions, there is a high possibility of plagiarism in your work. Consider rewriting some parts of your work and make sure to cite everything accordingly.
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