5 Top Plagiarism Checker Apps For Students
Originality is key when producing a quality write-up or research work. There is no upside to plagiarism, it only shows the student lacks integrity and critical thinking. It also proves whatever content is produced lacks originality.
Plagiarism is one of the top academic misconduct in learning institutions. Plagiarism involves activities that present another author’s ideas, thoughts or research as your own without acknowledging its source.
For a long time, plagiarism has been a prevalent issue in academic institutions. This offence can attract severe penalties ranging from the student’s academic work being destroyed, the student getting expelled or in worse cases, the student may face legal charges. Despite the heavy consequences that plagiarism attracts, it is still a rising challenge in academic institutions. With the present ease of accessing resources through the internet, plagiarism is becoming a very easy process for students.
Effects of Plagiarism
The consequences of plagiarism rub off on the culprit, other students, the academic institution, and the economy as a whole. When a student plagiarizes their coursework, the efforts other students put into theirs become discredited and the authenticity of the standard of learning at the institution is devalued.
Plagiarism can be deliberate or unintentional. Some students are guilty of plagiarism because they didn’t give proper credit to the source of the information used in their project. Some students however deliberately attempt to pass another author’s work or idea as theirs for a variety of reasons. These reasons may range from trying to meet a deadline to poor research and writing abilities or any other reasons.
The severity of penalties issued will however vary among universities and study destinations. For example, in the UK, plagiarism is a major offence in academic and professional settings. Asides being intellectual theft, plagiarism damages a student’s history of hard work and creates a picture of dishonesty.
How to avoid plagiarism
To avoid plagiarism as a student, you need to fully understand the university’s citation guidelines and what constitutes plagiarism in that institution.
Here are 5 tips that will help you avoid plagiarism in your coursework:
1. Start working on your coursework early.
Many students decide to present copies of other people’s work as theirs when trying to meet a deadline. Plan your projects and their deadlines such that you give yourself enough time to do proper research and produce original ideas before submission.
2. Do proper research.
Explore as many resources as you need to fully understand the subject and understand the citation guidelines to apply.
3. Present original ideas.
With a proper understanding of the subject, you should be able to present what you learnt from your research and any new ideas you may have discovered that will add value to your coursework. This makes your work appear original to whoever reads it.
4. Acknowledge your sources.
Ensure you reference the sources of any ideas used in your article. Understand how and where referencing is needed and act accordingly.
5. Proofread your article and use a plagiarism checker.
Proofreading your article helps you manually detect any signs of plagiarism as well as grammatically errors in your work. Plagiarism checkers are a necessary aid when producing quality content. They scan your work through a wide range of articles on the internet and highlight any plagiarized or paraphrased sections.
What are the benefits of using a plagiarism checker?
As earlier mentioned, plagiarism checkers compare the contents of your work with millions of articles that have been published online. This gives you access to a wider range of resources and allows you to compare similarities and spot plagiarized content you may have skipped.
Here are other benefits of using a plagiarism checker:
- Improves your research and writing skills: As plagiarism checkers detect plagiarized content in your article, this will challenge you to do proper research and improve your writing skills to produce high-quality content.
- Plagiarism checkers also help you properly reference sources you may have missed.
- Through improved research and writing skills, you can produce not only high-quality content but also content that will show your original ideas.
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Top plagiarism checker apps for students
Through technology, plagiarism checking has been made easier for students especially. Several apps can help students and other users scan an article for plagiarized content. Many of these plagiarism checker apps have mobile and PC versions. This allows students the ease of scanning through any coursework before submission.
These plagiarism checker apps could be free or cost a fee. In some cases, both free and paid plans are made available with paid plans allowing for more features at a fee.
Here are 5 top plagiarism checking apps for students to explore:
Grammarly is an online writing assistant that helps users identify spelling and grammar errors. In addition to helping users write error-free and high-quality content, the paid version of this app has a plagiarism check feature. This feature allows a user to scan a text through billions of web pages on the internet to search for duplicate content and guide through proper citation. Grammarly is available for PC use, android and iOS.
Duplichecker is another great plagiarism checker app. Similar to Grammarly, Duplichecker has a grammar and plagiarism check feature. The great thing about this app is that it is free and it allows different file types to be scanned through the internet’s wide database. The downside to this app, however, is that it only allows a user to check a maximum of 1000 words.
PaperRater is a top writing assistant that helps students write better and create quality content. PaperRater uses AI technology to check for plagiarism, and spot similar content as well as grammar and vocabulary errors.
Turnitin is an online-based plagiarism detection app. Unlike other plagiarism detection apps, students cannot access Turnitin plagiarism features unless their teacher uses the app. Turnitin features are targeted at helping teachers conduct a thorough scan of students’ coursework. The app provides a detailed breakdown of plagiarized or duplicated content in an article to encourage students in developing original ideas.
PlagScan is a plagiarism detection app that allows users to compare the originality of a text against other documents on the web. PlagScan also allows users generate a plagiarism report in any desired form, either as a PDF or a web report.
