Plagiarism Checkers
Plagiarism checkers are software that can be used to cross-check text for duplicated content (this may include quoted material, paraphrased material, similarities in wording, etc.). These tools help to ensure that writing is original and correctly cited.
Remember that the SNHU Academic Honesty Policy defines plagiarism as: "the use, whether by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another without full and clear acknowledgment". Plagiarism is often unintentional--you may not realize that you have accidentally plagiarized so using a plagiarism checker can help determine if and where plagiarism may have occurred so it can be corrected.
The following are some examples of plagiarism checkers:
- Turnitin: TurnItIn is a plagiarism checker used by SNHU that matches submitted work against a national database of other college assignments, database research sources, and web sources. TurnItIn is only visible to instructors; if it is being used in your course, you can ask your instructor for a copy of your report, which will be generated as soon as you submit your paper for grading.
- Grammarly: A free online plagiarism checker that can also assist with grammar and proofreading.
Additionally, a simple Google search can oftentimes detect plagiarism. Instructors can just put a sentence or two of a student's paper into Google and see if there are any matches.
