A plagiarism checker is a tool widely used in educational and professional environments to ensure the originality and authenticity of text. It provides academic integrity and protects authors’ rights, facilitating the work of teachers, students, writers, and editors. How exactly does the plagiarism tool work, and what should one know before choosing one?

How plagiarism detectors work

Despite doing wonders to facilitate the work process, plagiarism detection is no magic wand. The tool relies on thought-out algorithms and cutting-edge technologies, guaranteeing customers a precise and easy solution.

  1. Each tool has a database. Its vastness depends on the product: some checkers search only online, while others have access to specific repositories. PlagiarismCheck.org, for example, searches all the resources available online, including freshly published or deleted content. Besides, the detector has access to some closed databases that are unavailable for free, ensuring more accurate results. Moreover, the customers can upload their own texts for comparison–for example, teachers can add their institution’s repository to prevent students from copying from each other.
  2. Empowered by sophisticated algorithms, the tool compares the text submitted for the check to all the content from its database. It flags the matches between the writing and the database and gives a potential plagiarism percentage based on the similarities. The depth of analysis depends on the tool. PlagiarismCheck.org, for instance, catches not only verbatim copying but can trace poor paraphrasing, synonymization, sentence restructuring, hidden symbols, and other tricky cheating attempts.
  3. The report reflects the number and character of matches between the text and the database. It can provide other details: for example, PlagiarismCheck.org generates a downloadable report where the user can see all the sources where the similarities have been caught and analyze them by comparing the paper to the source text.

Unobvious facts about plagiarism checkers

  1. Modern similarity detectors can provide comprehensive text analysis. PlagiarismCheck.org, for instance, also assists with punctuation and grammar and includes a Chat GPT checker, Citation Generator, and Authorship Authentification tool.
  2. The checker detects similarities that are allegedly plagiarism. However, it is for the customer to make the final conclusion: sometimes copying is accidental, or the matching parts contain information that the author needs to keep unchanged. It is handy that the detector flags the matching parts of the text so one can analyze it and make a verdict.
  3. Students can use the plagiarism checker to learn from their mistakes even before the teacher’s feedback. By scanning the text for similarities, they can avoid unintentional plagiarism, master proper paraphrasing and citation, and improve writing skills.
  4. Top-notch plagiarism detectors can be fully integrated into the workflow. In particular, PlagiarismCheck.org can be used on popular Learning Management System platforms, as a browser extension or Google Docs add-on, or implemented into any environment through API.

PlagiarismCheck.org helps educators, students, and writers to stay fresh and motivated for creative work, taking the mundane tasks on us. You can see how it works for free–try it now!