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Plagiarism

How To Avoid Plagiarism

Whether you’re writing an authoritative article, interviewing an expert, or sharing important findings, you want to avoid taking ideas or concepts from another author and passing them off as your own. At the same time, you want your work to have credibility, and pulling from other sources can add that boost. Plus, in today’s always-on,

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Introduction

Our text compare tool is a fantastic, lightweight tool that provides plagiarism checks between two documents. Whether you are a student, blogger or publisher, this tool offers a great solution to detect and compare similarities between any two pieces of text. In this article, I will discuss the different ways to use the tool, the primary features of the tool and who this tool is for. There is an FAQ at the bottom if you run into any issues when trying to use the tool.

What makes Originality.ai’s text comparison tool stand out?

Keyword density helper – This tool comes with a built-in keyword density helper in some ways similar to the likes of SurferSEO or MarketMuse the difference being, ours is free! This feature shows the user the frequency of single or two word keywords in a document, meaning you can easily compare an article you have written against a competitor to see the major differences in keyword densities. This is especially useful for SEO’s who are looking to optimize their blog content for search engines and improve the blog’s visibility.

Ways to compare

File compare – Text comparison between files is a breeze with our tool. Simply select the files you would like to compare, hit “Upload” and our tool will automatically insert the content into the text area, then simply hit “Compare” and let our tool show you where the differences in the text are. By uploading a file, you can still check the keyword density in your content.

URL compare

Comparing text between URLs is effortless with our tool. Simply paste the URL you would like to get the content from (in our example we use a fantastic blog post by Sherice Jacob found here) hit “Submit URL” and our tool will automatically retrieve the contents of the page and paste it into the text area, then simply click “Compare” and let our tool highlight the difference between the URLs. This feature is especially useful for checking keyword density between pages!

Simple text compare

You can also easily compare text by copying and pasting it into each field, as demonstrated below.

Features of Originality.ai’s Text Compare Tool

Ease of use

Our text compare tool is created with the user in mind, it is designed to be accessible to everyone. Our tool allows users to upload files or enter a URL to extract text, this along with the lightweight design ensures a seamless experience. The interface is simple and straightforward, making it easy for users to compare text and detect the diff.

Multiple text file format support

Our tool provides support for a variety of different text files and microsoft word formats including pdf file, .docx, .odt, .doc, and .txt, giving users the ability to compare text from different sources with ease. This makes it a great solution for students, bloggers, and publishers who are looking for file comparison in different formats.

Protects intellectual property

Our text comparison tool helps you protect your intellectual property and helps prevent plagiarism. This tool provides an accurate comparison of texts, making it easy to ensure that your work is original and not copied from other sources. Our tool is a valuable resource for anyone looking to maintain the originality of their content.

User Data Privacy

Our text compare tool is secure and protects user data privacy. No data is ever saved to the tool, the users’ text is only scanned and pasted into the tool’s text area. This makes certain that users can use our tool with confidence, knowing their data is safe and secure.

Compatibility

Our text comparison tool is designed to work seamlessly across all size devices, ensuring maximum compatibility no matter your screen size. Whether you are using a large desktop monitor, a small laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, this tool adjusts to your screen size. This means that users can compare texts and detect the diff anywhere without the need for specialized hardware or software. This level of accessibility makes it an ideal solution for students or bloggers who value the originality of their work and need to compare text online anywhere at any time.

Whether you're writing an authoritative article, interviewing an expert, or sharing important findings, you want to avoid plagiarism. That is, taking ideas or concepts from an original source and passing them off as your own. While swiping a few ideas or words may seem harmless, it can have major repercussions, especially for content writers, publishers, and agencies.

But this doesn't mean you're stuck writing about common knowledge - far from it! It's still possible to write like an authority and incorporate key points from other publications and writers, whether they're from online sources or in print. You just have to do it the right way.

In this article, we're going to discuss how to avoid plagiarism. We'll talk about what it is, its potential consequences, and what you can do to avoid plagiarism in your own content.

What Is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism occurs when you take ideas, words, data, etc. from an original source without giving them proper credit. Basically, you're taking someone else's work and making it seem like its your own, whether you intended to do so or not.

That's right - accidental plagiarism does exist. In fact, it's just one of many types of plagiarism.

What Are the Different Types of Plagiarism?

Many people think of plagiarism as copying someone or something word-for-word. But this is just one of the different types of plagiarism.

Direct Plagiarism

This is a classic type of intentional plagiarism, where someone tries to pass off someone else's work as their own. An example of direct plagiarism would be copying a sentence word-for-word from another author and putting it into a blog article without quotation marks and a proper citation.

Patchwork Plagiarism

Also known as mosaic plagiarism, patchwork plagiarism involves taking bits and pieces from different sources and throwing them together to create something new. For example, taking sentences or portions of sentences from multiple authors, and rearranging them to create a new paragraph in your own work.

Paraphrasing Plagiarism

Now we're going to get into some of the more surprising forms of plagiarism. People often think that paraphrasing is a way to avoid plagiarism. However, if you're not citing the original source, then you're still trying to claim someone else's idea as your own.

An example of paraphrasing plagiarism is taking someone's original idea and/or sentence, and changing a few words. This is especially common in academic writing involving literature reviews, so students and professionals in the field should be careful of this one.

Self-plagiarism

Yes, you even need to worry about plagiarizing yourself! Recycling your own work may seem like a time-saver, but it's still not original content. For example, you can't copy sections of an article you previously wrote for a client and paste them into a different article for a different client.

Accidental or Unintentional Plagiarism

Accidental or unintentional plagiarism occurs when you're unaware that you're plagiarizing someone else's work. This could be due to improper citations, failing to surround a quote with quotation marks, or simply forgetting to cite references.

This kind of inadvertent plagiarism may be due to nothing more than a lack of knowledge or oversight. But unfortunately, it still counts.

Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism

Whether it's intentional or not, it's essential to avoid any type of plagiarism in your work if you want to avoid the potential consequences. Not only is copying another's work against many academic codes, but it also won't be tolerated in professional settings. Students risk losing their place in school, and professionals their jobs.

Fortunately, there are a variety of strategies that you can try to avoid plagiarism and ensure that you're delivering original material. So, whether you're coming up with a blog post, journal article, scientific paper, or something else entirely, consider working the following tips into your writing routine.

Share Your Perspective of an Idea

It's fine to mention someone else's idea, but what do you think about it? You likely have a unique perspective or angle that you could add to the discussion, and that can help your thoughts (and thus your writing) to flow more naturally.

Don't forget that if you're sharing someone else's idea or their phrasing, that you cite or quote them appropriately. We'll share how to do that below.

Cite the Source Appropriately

One of the best ways to avoid plagiarism is to simply cite your source. But this isn't a one-size-fits-all situation - there are a variety of ways to do this properly. For example, after jotting down some information that you need to give credit for, you can add parenthetical citations with the original creator's information. Or, you could add in a footnote that denotes the original author's full name, the date of the publication you're referencing and any other information that's required.

The requirements will vary depending on the style guide you're using as a reference, so be sure to follow it closely. If you don't have one on hand, then the Purdue Online Writing Lab from Purdue University is a great place to learn about two of the most common ones, APA and MLA.

Paraphrase the Original Author

Paraphrasing means taking the other person's words and altering them to the point that the concept sounds like your own. As you can probably imagine, there's a bit of a delicate balance between plagiarizing someone else's work and taking the core idea and putting it into your own words. You still need to cite their original idea, though, so keep that in mind even as you work to make it yours.

The key thing to remember is that you want to remain true to the original idea as it was expressed. You certainly don't want to dive into a thesaurus just replacing words without any regard for the nuances of their meanings.

Quote the Original Author

One incredibly easy yet often overlooked method for avoiding plagiarism is taking a direct quote from the original author. This way, you can use their words verbatim.

Don't forget to include their name, where the phrase originally appeared, and when.

What About Open Interpretations?

What if you take information from someone's interpretation of another work? Plagiarism doesn't have to be a direct quotation from someone else's work in order to be considered plagiarism. Just look at this example from Northwestern University.

On the aforementioned page, you can also find excellent examples of using other authors' examples when presenting your own, incorporating their charts or graphs, and even covering debatable or unusual facts.

The Bottom Line on Avoiding Plagiarism

As you can see, although there are many seemingly gray areas where you have others' thoughts, examples, ideas and even images, the rules regarding plagiarism are clear: if it's not your work, then you need to cite it. This applies to nearly everything, even if you're not an academician.

Outside the world of academia, linking back to the original example is done not only to expand on the information presented, but also to give credit to the original author. Besides, backlinks are like gold for online sources, and the number of backlinks pointing to a specific report or finding gives it greater “clout” in the search engines.

The problem arises whether you're a content producer, publisher, or agency. You don't want to risk losing those valuable backlinks, and you definitely don't want to risk your company's reputation, search engine ranking, and other factors that affect your ability to be seen and hired by potential clients. That's why using a plagiarism detection tool like Originality.AI is so important.

How Originality.AI Works

Originality.AI goes beyond ordinary plagiarism checkers, including academic plagiarism checkers and popular online checkers that look merely for copied words and phrases from other sources. With the plethora of AI-enhanced article writing tools at our disposal, it is becoming more and more tempting for writers of all backgrounds to put their writing skills aside and let the AI cobble together something passably human - at least, at first glance.

However, Google's rules regarding AI-generated content are clear, and more than ever, companies are scrutinizing the content they order to ensure that it's not only factually accurate, but that it hasn't been churned out by some machine feigning readability. It's not a matter of if search engines will catch them, but when.

Plus the consequences of plagiarism online for businesses are tough. A loss of reputation, visitors, clients, ranking, and more. There may even be legal notices or monetary damages involved.

That's the beauty of using a plagiarism checker like Originality.AI, as it helps give business owners, content creators and publishers, and marketing agencies peace of mind. That's because Originality.AI is tuned to pick out the tell-tale signs of plagiarism from even the most sophisticated content writing bots, including the newly-released ChatGPT AI content creator.

Even better, businesses and publishers of all backgrounds can try Originality.AI on their own content risk-free. By using coupon code BeOriginal you can save 50% on your first purchase of 2,000 credits or more. One credit allows the deep-dive scanning of up to 100 words. Try Originality.AI now for yourself and see how easy it can be to avoid plagiarism while making sure your business is producing the best-quality content for your given area of expertise.

Sherice Jacob

Sherice Jacob is a seasoned copywriter and content professional fluent in English, Spanish, and Catalan, with over 25 years of experience crafting high-converting copy. Passionate about AI, she enjoys exploring the new innovations and possibilities it brings to the world of content creation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to fill out the entire form?

No, that’s one of the benefits, only fill out the areas which you think will be relevant to the prompts you require.

Why is the English so poor for some prompts?

When making the tool we had to make each prompt as general as possible to be able to include every kind of input. Not to worry though ChatGPT is smart and will still understand the prompt.

In The Press

Originality.ai has been featured for its accurate ability to detect GPT-3, Chat GPT and GPT-4 generated content. See some of the coverage below…

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Originality.ai did a fantastic job on all three prompts, precisely detecting them as AI-written. Additionally, after I checked with actual human-written textual content, it did determine it as 100% human-generated, which is important.

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searchenginejournal.com

I use this tool most frequently to check for AI content personally. My most frequent use-case is checking content submitted by freelance writers we work with for AI and plagiarism.

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After extensive research and testing, we determined Originality.ai to be the most accurate technology.

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Jon Gillham, Founder of Originality.ai came up with a tool to detect whether the content is written by humans or AI tools. It’s built on such technology that can specifically detect content by ChatGPT-3 — by giving you a spam score of 0-100, with an accuracy of 94%.

Felix Rose-Collins

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ChatGPT lacks empathy and originality. It’s also recognized as AI-generated content most of the time by plagiarism and AI detectors like Originality.ai

Ashley Stahl

forbes.com

Originality.ai Do give them a shot! 

Sri Krishna

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For web publishers, Originality.ai will enable you to scan your content seamlessly, see who has checked it previously, and detect if an AI-powered tool was implored.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it important to check for plagiarism?

Tools for conducting a plagiarism check between two documents online are important as it helps to ensure the originality and authenticity of written work. Plagiarism undermines the value of professional and educational institutions, as well as the integrity of the authors who write articles. By checking for plagiarism, you can ensure the work that you produce is original or properly attributed to the original author. This helps prevent the distribution of copied and misrepresented information.

What is Text Comparison?

Text comparison is the process of taking two or more pieces of text and comparing them to see if there are any similarities, differences and/or plagiarism. The objective of a text comparison is to see if one of the texts has been copied or paraphrased from another text. This text compare tool for plagiarism check between two documents has been built to help you streamline that process by finding the discrepancies with ease.

How do Text Comparison Tools Work?

Text comparison tools work by analyzing and comparing the contents of two or more text documents to find similarities and differences between them. This is typically done by breaking the texts down into smaller units such as sentences or phrases, and then calculating a similarity score based on the number of identical or nearly identical units. The comparison may be based on the exact wording of the text, or it may take into account synonyms and other variations in language. The results of the comparison are usually presented in the form of a report or visual representation, highlighting the similarities and differences between the texts.

String comparison is a fundamental operation in text comparison tools that involves comparing two sequences of characters to determine if they are identical or not. This comparison can be done at the character level or at a higher level, such as the word or sentence level.

The most basic form of string comparison is the equality test, where the two strings are compared character by character and a Boolean result indicating whether they are equal or not is returned. More sophisticated string comparison algorithms use heuristics and statistical models to determine the similarity between two strings, even if they are not exactly the same. These algorithms often use techniques such as edit distance, which measures the minimum number of operations (such as insertions, deletions, and substitutions) required to transform one string into another.

Another common technique for string comparison is n-gram analysis, where the strings are divided into overlapping sequences of characters (n-grams) and the frequency of each n-gram is compared between the two strings. This allows for a more nuanced comparison that takes into account partial similarities, rather than just exact matches.

String comparison is a crucial component of text comparison tools, as it forms the basis for determining the similarities and differences between texts. The results of the string comparison can then be used to generate a report or visual representation of the similarities and differences between the texts.

What is Syntax Highlighting?

Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors and integrated development environments (IDEs) that helps to visually distinguish different elements of a code or markup language. It does this by coloring different elements of the code, such as keywords, variables, functions, and operators, based on a predefined set of rules.

The purpose of syntax highlighting is to make the code easier to read and understand, by drawing attention to the different elements and their structure. For example, keywords may be colored in a different hue to emphasize their importance, while comments or strings may be colored differently to distinguish them from the code itself. This helps to make the code more readable, reducing the cognitive load of the reader and making it easier to identify potential syntax errors.

How Can I Conduct a Plagiarism Check between Two Documents Online?

With our tool it’s easy, just enter or upload some text, click on the button “Compare text” and the tool will automatically display the diff between the two texts.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Text Compare Tool?

Using text comparison tools is much easier, more efficient, and more reliable than proofreading a piece of text by hand. Eliminate the risk of human error by using a tool to detect and display the text difference within seconds.

What Files Can You Inspect with This Text Compare Tool?

We have support for the file extensions .pdf, .docx, .odt, .doc and .txt. You can also enter your text or copy and paste text to compare.

Will My Data Be Shared?

There is never any data saved by the tool, when you hit “Upload” we are just scanning the text and pasting it into our text area so with our text compare tool, no data ever enters our servers.

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