Should Authors Use Plagiarism Checkers?
Are plagiarism checkers necessary, or even useful, for authors?
You probably remember being told about the importance of not plagiarizing in school. "Don't take someone else's work and claim it as your own," you were likely told.
I remember a librarian telling our class about how you could be fined for plagiarizing and that it could even be illegal in some cases. At the time, my nine-year-old self was terrified that I'd accidentally plagiarize and be thrown in jail for not properly citing something in my book report.
Luckily, I was quickly reassured that I would not be going to jail if I made a mistake in my book report. Crisis averted.
With so many new resources, it's becoming easier than ever to check your work for plagiarism. Who needs these checkers, though, and is plagiarism in writing really that common? Let's talk about it.
Plagiarism is surprisingly common, but it’s usually not intentional.
One reason authors may want to use plagiarism is that plagiarism isn't always intentional. The majority of authors are writing and publishing their books to share an important message or story or to entertain and educate readers—they're not publishing their books with the intent to steal someone else's work.
However, plagiarizing can be surprisingly easy sometimes. Plagiarism can happen if you forget to include a source, cite a source improperly, or repeat something that you heard without realizing that the thought wasn't originally yours (and therefore you don't cite the original source).
For this reason, it can be helpful for authors to use plagiarism checkers to ensure they're not accidentally attributing someone else's thoughts as their own or misusing someone else's material.
Nonfiction authors often benefit from plagiarism checkers.
Since so many nonfiction authors often quote outside material—songs, journals, speeches, etc.—plagiarism checkers can be particularly useful to them. That doesn't mean fiction authors should totally avoid using a plagiarism checker, especially if they have access to tools that already offer these services, such as Grammarly.
It's worthwhile to input your completed work into a plagiarism checker to ensure your work meets ethical standards. The last thing any author wants is to create a well-written book only to have the attention shifted to a mistaken instance of plagiarism.
Additionally, these tools also let you know if someone else has written about a topic in a manner similar to your writing style. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to scrap your work, but it might tell you that you need to add more context to your writing, change the way it's presented, or rework areas of your writing to ensure your work stands out. This could also let you know that you're writing about something that interests other people, which is definitely a good sign, so take the information you're given with a grain of salt.
Though plagiarism checkers are often useful, they're not always foolproof.
Plagiarism checkers aren't perfect, and they don't always provide you with the context around what is allegedly being plagiarized. For example, this article shares one student's experience being told that she had plagiarized artwork; in reality, the plagiarism checker had found her own artwork that she had uploaded on her website. The work was all owned by her, but the plagiarism checker still flagged it.
As we mentioned above, these checkers also sometimes tell you that your work is similar to someone else's. Overlap in content doesn't equate to plagiarism, though. Some tools will even suggest you're plagiarizing your own work if you reference something you've previously written.
So before panicking too much, try to take a look at what specifically the tool you're using is highlighting as potential plagiarism. Work backward to see if you can find the original source (or the source the checker is comparing your work to) if it's not provided.
While plagiarism checkers can be helpful tools, you should view them as that—tools that can help you make things a little easier. They're not a replacement for your own research, and not all of these resources are made equally.
Have you ever used a plagiarism checker before? Do you think they're necessary for most authors?
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KWE Publishing
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As we’ve talked about, not all plagiarism checkers are easy to use or accurate, which is why it’s important to use one you can trust if you decide to use one to double-check your writing. Grammarly, a well-known tool in writing communities used to help catch grammatical and technical mistakes, also offers a plagiarism checker, and it’s one of the best out there.
Grammarly’s plagiarism checker is easy to use; all you need to do is copy your text from the original document and paste it into the area to check for plagiarism. Alternatively, you can upload a file directly to the plagiarism checker and take a look at your options there. While the plagiarism checker is not free—it’s one of Grammarly’s premium features that you can access by paying for the premium subscription at $12/month—if you’re considering purchasing a subscription to Grammarly for its other uses, it’s definitely something to consider if you want to take some of the guesswork out of making sure your writing is plagiarism-free.