Why Use Plagiarism Detection Software During Your Studies

Teachers are becoming increasingly vigilant during the process of checking students’ documents for plagiarism issues. This is largely due to the huge developments there have been in the creation of software that will assist teachers in this task. If they are making use of said software, then students should be too, as it will prevent potential problems following the submission of your work. Below are the main benefits of using plagiarism detection software:

• 1. You can check your work against a wide range of databases

The plagiarism checkers that academics use today compare a document against a wide variety of databases. Instead of having to use different software for each database that you want to search, one will be enough to search all of those available. The majority of teachers use a standard type that anybody has access to; just choose which one seems most reliable and start uploading your documents.

• 2. You will be deterred from plagiarising yourself

One (often unnoticed!) advantage of using plagiarism detection software is that you will be aware of how much information is scanned and recognised if it is duplicated. Students sometimes try to get away with copying just small parts of sentences when they start university, but they are then usually found out and penalised. In order to avoid this happening, it is a good idea to make use of this type of software in your first writing assignments to make you see how sensitive it is.

• 3. You can be confident that all of your work is free from plagiarism

The submission of assignments is stressful enough as it is, so why make it worse by worrying that your teacher might find duplicate content? If you run your assignments through a plagiarism checker before handing them in, you can relax knowing that there won’t be any issues with the information you have included from external sources. You can usually see how similar certain phrases and sentences are when you use a checker, so you will know exactly where you might need to tweak the wording a bit.

• 4. You may find more sources by using plagiarism software

When you run your work through a checker, it will show you which sources contain similar wording to that which you have included. If you haven’t used this book or article in your research of the topic and it is merely a coincidence, you could go on to do further research for that source and add in other relevant information that you come across. Just make sure you check your work for plagiarism again afterwards, just in case you have accidentally written something that is too close to the source text.

• 5. You can improve your paraphrasing abilities

As previously mentioned, when the checker finds similarities between your work and an external source, it will give you a percentage to show you how similar the wording actually is. This will be a useful tool for improving your paraphrasing abilities and further preventing future plagiarism issues, as you will inevitably practise lowering the similarity percentages you receive with each document you submit.

Running your work through a plagiarism checker is a short process at the end of writing your assignment, so although it is an additional task for you to carry out prior to submission, it will be well worth it when you reduce potential problems that may arise later on. Remember to use the software each and every time you have an assignment due, as your teacher will then never have to deduct marks for finding duplicate content within your documents.