With the wealth of online content, avoiding unintentional plagiarism is tricky. Fortunately, free plagiarism checker apps can help students ensure assignments are original before turning them in.
This guide covers the top free plagiarism detection tools and how to use them properly.
Plagiarism remains a significant issue in academics, intentional or not. According to surveys, over 80% of students admit to inadvertent plagiarism. Accidentally copying sources happens quickly with so much content online.
That’s why utilizing a free plagiarism app is essential. Free plagiarism checkers scan submissions and highlight copied text from existing works. This allows students to properly paraphrase, quote, and cite sources to avoid plagiarism allegations.
Quality checkers compare writing against billions of web pages, journals, and papers to identify duplication. While plagiarism apps should not replace learning proper research and citation methods, they provide a critical last check.
Utilizing them helps students confidently submit original, ethically sourced work. Now let’s examine the top free plagiarism checker options for students.
Quetext offers an advanced plagiarism checker comparing writing against over 45 billion web pages and 130 million published works. The free version allows students to check up to 1500 words per scan.
It highlights any duplicated text and generates originality and readability scores. Students can easily interpret visual reports. Quetext also integrates with Google Docs for streamlined scanning and supports batch uploads. This allows checking multiple assignments.
The popular grammar checker Grammarly includes a free plagiarism detection feature along with its spelling, punctuation, and style corrections. It checks documents and webpages for copied text by comparing them against over 8 billion online sources.
The plagiarism checker supports English, German, Spanish, and French languages.
Grammarly also flags citations needing a reference, ensuring students correctly attribute quotes. Its browser extensions allow checking work directly while typing in Google Docs or web forms.
DupliChecker offers a basic free plagiarism scanner supporting text up to 5000 words. It checks writing against previous submissions, abstracts, and publications in its existing database.
The tool highlights duplicate passages found and provides an overall plagiarism percentage. Students can interpret if that percentage seems reasonable given the amount of quotes and citations needed in the work.
DupliChecker also provides a Chrome extension to instantly check webpages. Its bulk uploading makes it easy to scan multiple assignments.
Plagiarisma’s free plagiarism tool allows students to check short excerpts of writing for duplication. Just paste in a fragment or sentence at a time to see if it appears elsewhere online.
Given the limited text length, it's best for spot-checking specific passages rather than whole papers. But it's handy for quickly verifying if a particular phrase needs rewriting.
Plagiarisma also offers a $5 per month subscription for full-document scans if needed. But its free version works for targeted checks during the editing process.
PlagScan offers a free trial of its paid plagiarism checker, allowing up to 1500 words per scan. It checks against major search engines, its own database, and access to scholarly literature.
The tool highlights copied passages and generates an originality report with the percentage of unique content. PlagScan integrates directly with Google Drive for easy uploads.
While geared toward academic institutions, students can still benefit from the free trial. Just be sure to cancel ahead if not wanting to subscribe after the trial.
This web-based tool lets students run up to 1500 words through its plagiarism scanner for free. It searches across major search engines and online publications.
The report highlights duplicated text and identifies the online source. This helps students properly cite passages that should not be paraphrased. Reports can be emailed for later reference while rewriting.
For longer submissions, SmallSeoTools offers paid plans starting under $5 monthly. But the free version sufficiently covers standard short essays and assignments.
While plagiarism checkers are invaluable for students, keep these expert tips in mind to use them effectively:
No plagiarism app is foolproof at detecting all duplication issues. Technical workarounds exist allowing intentional plagiarists to slip past scanners. So don’t rely on apps as the only defense against plagiarism.
Run initial scans when drafting so there is time to properly rewrite or cite flagged passages before completion. Checking only right before submission leaves little room for improvement.
A sentence may show up elsewhere online but still not require citation if it’s common knowledge or a generic phrase. Check flagged results to determine if referencing is truly needed based on academic guidelines.
Blindly rewriting everything flagged can weaken writing quality. Use quotes strategically for key passages while paraphrasing generic descriptions in your own words. This results in a well-cited, high-quality paper.
Using plagiarism checkers strategically helps students hone their writing skills, not circumvent them. The apps serve as extra assistance on top of citing best practices learned in class.
Even with good intentions, students often struggle to avoid plagiarism for reasons like:
Quality-free plagiarism checkers combined with proper time management alleviate these challenges. But students also build long-term skills by learning when and how to properly integrate outside sources.
After the plagiarism scan, students should manually check their work using this best practice checklist:
The most robust plagiarism defense combines scanner apps with learned research and documentation skills. Following a methodical checklist removes reliance on technology alone.
Free checkers scan against limited databases, so paid services offer greater detection capability. But free tools sufficiently uncover blatant, word-for-word plagiarism from major online sources in most student work.
Most free tools allow saving PDF reports containing the percentage of unique content and highlighting copied text passages and their online source. Students can refer back to these reports while revising their work.
Many institutions license robust plagiarism scanners allowing professors and teaching assistants to check student work. So it’s important students run the same checks proactively before submitting assignments.
Schools may be more lenient when plagiarism appears accidental due to a lack of citations rather than deliberate copying. But it still carries academic dishonesty penalties. So unintentional plagiarism should be treated just as seriously.
Changing words in a plagiarized text to synonyms and scrambled word order are common tricks students attempt. But most detectors account for this by scanning for sentence structure and context rather than matching keywords only.
With the right plagiarism tools and research habits, students can confidently submit original, ethical work. Free scanner apps catch overlooked duplication issues early when revision time remains.
But they should be used to complement, not replace, a solid understanding of proper quoting, paraphrasing, and citation guidelines.
Plagiarism remains a challenging academic issue. But equipping students with the best free tools and education fosters work students can take pride in as their own.
