How Do Plagiarism Checkers Work?

Plagiarism is a problem in many fields nowadays. That is why we need plagiarism checkers to cope with it. This article describes how search technologies and algorithms for content comparison work to check plagiarism.

Why Is Plagiarism Bad?

Plagiarism is the illegal use of someone’s intellectual property without referring to its source. It is a problem in the world of literature and academic studies. Paper writers, academic researchers, journalists, and university professors become victims of plagiarism most often. Copying someone’s work is considered a violation of academic rules and social laws. Moreover, it is unethical.

Plagiarism is not a new phenomenon in the world of writing and academic studies. Its roots go back to the 1st century BC. However, nowadays, it has become a huge problem due to the development of technologies and the Internet. Many students believe that they do not have to spend much time and effort on research. It is only enough to enter an inquiry in the search engine, and they will receive ready answers to all their academic assignments.

Politicians, social leaders, influencers, and public figures can suffer from plagiarism too. It is sometimes difficult to make a clear distinction between new ideas and the concepts that have already been put forward by outstanding people.

If you are a student in a high school, college, or university program, you need to be especially attentive to spelling and grammar mistakes in your academic assignment and the plagiarized pieces you may have used in your paper. To avoid the latter, provide credits to the original author and/or publisher of these pieces.

How Do Plagiarism Checkers Work?

Therefore, a plagiarism checker uses cutting-edge algorithms to scan for matches between the existing information and your writing. Plagiarism checkers are widely used by academic institutions, commercial structures, and publishing houses all over the world.

The algorithms of this software’s work are used in the same way Google uses similar algorithms to look for information. A plagiarism checker gathers the content of the web and indexes it. It compares the content database to your writing piece to detect matches.

A checker gives you the percentage of plagiarism in your work and highlights the plagiarized sentences or passages, providing the list of sources these sentences are taken from.

Everything said above does not mean that students plagiarize intentionally. Most of them do not understand what they are doing in the wrong way.

So, the ways of detecting plagiarism differ from one checker to another, depending on their methods to identify the improper content. The most common methods include the following:

1. Assessment by Keywords

The software scans the text for repetitions of the same words in the same places in the document. If specific words are used in the exact locations as they are used in other articles, they are considered plagiarism. Using keywords as a method cannot identify paraphrases, though it is also considered plagiarism in many cases.

2. Assessment by Phrases

Here, the software does not look for separate words but for an order of words in one phrase. Plagiarism can be detected if three, four, or five words are in the same order as in the source. Though, this detection can be evoked by any separate word that displays coincidences in use. This technique cannot help in detecting paraphrases.

3. Fingerprinting

Fingerprinting is used to check word fragments. The order of these fragments can give a cue to show that the document was composed based on another source. If you copy a passage and then paste it into your paper, adding paragraphs or reordering them, the fingerprint is preserved.

4. Fragment Matching Detection

Every paper or document has its unique style or tone. So, scanning for content matching is performed when the software compares the pieces of writing by their style and probability of certain word sequences in one paragraph that can be style characteristics. However, such an algorithm cannot detect word-for-word matches.

There is a common issue with all these algorithms, though. It is about picking out such common words as articles or conjunctions that are obligatory for any string of words. Fingerprinting is the best way to diminish this problem by excluding common words from the analysis.

What Can’t Plagiarism Checker Identify?

There are moments when plagiarism checkers cannot identify, even if you use the most advanced software.

Plagiarized Ideas and Images

If the ideas have been properly changed, translated, or rewritten, checkers cannot identify them as plagiarized. Images cannot be identified, either.

Materials Belonging to Internal Databases

Many academic institutions also have private databases that consist of the materials produced by their professors and students. Outsiders do not normally have access to these databases. It means you can be caught if you plagiarize from someone from your institution. Though, if someone outside it gets access to these databases intentionally or by chance, they cannot be caught and accused of plagiarizing by any kind of free or commercial checker.

How to Choose the Best Plagiarism Checker?

The more accurate checking the software provides, the more reliable it is. Even if the overall phrasing has been carefully changed, the tool should detect plagiarism if you fail to cite the source. The checker also has to provide a detailed plagiarism report to help you make corrections and cite the ideas properly.

Different aspects of plagiarism checkers can influence your choice of tool.

Fortunately, our plagiarism checker has all these qualities. So you do not need to search long to check your paper for uniqueness. Just click on the ‘Plagiarism Checker’ button above, and you will have everything you need.

Final Thoughts

You cannot find a sole answer about how plagiarism checkers work. It is caused by different methods and algorithms used in various types of software. The methods depend on several factors, and some of them can even influence the detection of intended or unintended plagiarism.

Moreover, various plagiarism checkers have access to different databases. The more databases a plagiarism checker has access to, the more effective it will be. Still, there are certain limitations because a lot depends on whether the content is available on the Internet.

Never forget about checking your writing for plagiarism if you want to succeed in your academic or writing career.