Borrowing the words of the University of Oxford, we can briefly define plagiarism as follows:

“Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work as your own, with or without their consent by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement…”

Plagiarism is just about the worst thing that can come around in your content.

In academic writing, it can destroy your assignment grades.

In blog writing, it can severely damage your reputation as an author.

In SEO writing, it can get you a Google penalty.

You get the point. Wherever plagiarism is found, it’s always harmful.

Plagiarism Checking Tools: What Are They?

Plagiarism checking tool is developed to detect any type of identical matches that your text has with any other published source on the internet.

These tools basically use an algorithm that allows them to check the given content against billions of online pages in a matter of seconds.

Any direct match that a piece of text has with an existing source is highlighted and pointed out.

Some plagiarism checkers can also give you the exact address of the matched source.

How to Use a Plagiarism Checker?

Before we continue, there is something that should be cleared up.

A plagiarism checking tool will not actually produce or generate unique content for you.

There is a difference between this type of tool and a plagiarism remover. The latter actually removes the matches from your writing by paraphrasing the given content. 

When we say that a plagiarism checker will help you come up with unique content, we mean that it will help you spot the plagiarized bits in your writing.

Now, let’s see how you can actually use a plagiarism-checking tool:

1. Pick A Tool

First thing first, and that is to pick your tool.

There is a glut of plagiarism-checking tools on the internet. And a lot of them are not very useful or accurate.

Choosing the right tool can be a bit difficult if you don’t know where to look.

Here are some factors and qualities that you should see in a tool to see whether or not it is worth using.

Userbase

The first thing that you should see when choosing a plagiarism checker is the userbase.

Is it popular? Do a lot of people use it?

If the answer to both these questions is in the affirmative, you can consider using the tool…otherwise not.

Because if a website is not popular nor does it have many visitors, there’s probably a reason behind it.

Provided Sources

Looking at the exact sources of the plagiarized content can be very helpful. By looking at the exact source, you can understand the context.

By understanding the context, you can make the right changes in your text so that it does not resemble the matched source.

So, when choosing a tool for checking plagiarism, you should check and see if it provides the original sources or not.

This is not exactly a deal breaker…but it can be a great help if the feature is provided.

Accuracy

And last but not least, we have accuracy. There is no point in using a plagiarism checker if it is not accurate.

To check and see if the tool works properly or not, try copy-pasting some content word-for-word from a popular online source.

If the website works properly, it will give the results as 100% plagiarized.

2. Check Your Content

Once you decide on a tool, go ahead and upload your content. And then run the checking process.

Once the scan is complete, make a note of all the matches that your content has with other sources on the internet.

3. Remove the Plagiarism

After you detect all the matches in your content using the duplication checker, you need to fix them.

There are a few different ways in which you can remove plagiarism from your writing. Let’s touch on some of them briefly.

Change the Wording Manually

This is the most simple and effective way of removing plagiarism in any writing.

However, the problem is that it’s not very easy or plausible in larger texts. While changing a few sentences is a quick and easy job, it’s not the same for whole paragraphs and pages.

Using a Paraphrasing Tool

But, for larger texts, you have the option of using a paraphrasing tool.

Normally, using a paraphrasing tool on someone else’s content is not the best thing to do, but it is perfectly normal in this case since it’s your own work.

However, you can make your content 100% unique by using this online tool..

Cite the Source

If, due to the circumstances, you are unable to remove or alter the plagiarized part in any way, you should cite it and give the full acknowledgement to the original author.

And obviously, this solution will only be practicable for small pieces of text in your content. 

You can’t cite a whole article now, can you?

We can say that this approach is best for eliminating plagiarism from the academic content.

4. Finalize and Download

Once the matches are removed, you should go ahead and download your document in your system storage.

And that is pretty much it.

Conclusion

When it comes to using a plagiarism checking tool to come up with unique content, the former will only be able to help you as far as detecting the plagiarism is concerned.

As for the removal itself, you can either use a remover or try any of the methods mentioned above.