Plagiarism issues can be a nightmare for students and website owners. This is especially true for the latter if they don’t write their own content. Luckily, its fairly easy to check for it. All you have to do is download a Google Docs extension or browser add-on. This guide will detail how to check for plagiarism in Google Docs using these services using these add-ons or services. Read on for step-by-step instructions.
Table of Contents
Why Should You Avoid Plagiarism
There are several reasons why you should avoid plagiarism. These are:
- Intellectual Theft: Stealing someone’s work intentionally or unintentionally is considered intellectual theft.
- Lost Trust: Publishing content that copies the exact words or ideas from another source will erode the readers’ trust, leading to fewer sales or lower viewership of the published content.
- Affected Rankings: Search engine ranking is an essential factor for content creators as it defines whether your content is boosted for the viewers. Google’s algorithm doesn’t promote plagiarised content which means plagiarised content will be mostly hidden from the search results. Although in some cases some websites can get away with plagiarism, it’s not worth the risk.
Why Is It Important to Plagiarize Check Your Content?
Plagiarism-checking written work is crucial, even if you write the content from scratch. It might not be considered unique, even if parts of it match something published online without your knowledge.
The primary purpose of plagiarism detection in the content would be to avoid duplicating ideas or information from previous articles published. A plagiarism checker can be used to compare your work to multiple sources published online.
You can use an online plagiarism checker to provide a thorough plagiarism report detailing which sentences match other sources. This ensures that your work is unique and that you maintain ownership of your work.
A plagiarism checker might also assist you in preventing errors when paraphrasing. It can help protect users from incorrect citations, copying and pasting information, and other forms of unintentional plagiarism.
Plagiarism checking any content can provide confidence that the paper is unique. It may also be simpler to make modifications where duplication happens, allowing you to make the content memorable.
Additionally, it’s critical to evaluate the content for plagiarism to understand how particular writing pieces frequently occur in the same spot on the page. This may also assist you in avoiding accusations of plagiarism, as you’re allowed to make adjustments before you submit your writing.
Lastly, you can often run your old website articles through a plagiarism checker to see if any other websites have stolen your content and posted it.
How to Check for Plagiarism on Google Docs
Docs doesn’t offer a built-in tool to check for plagiarism in the document. There are essentially two methods for how to check if something is plagiarized in Google Docs. You can use a Google Docs plagiarism checker extension or a separate service (usually a browser add-on) to check for plagiarism in your document.
Using a Google Docs Plagiarism Add-on
Google Docs allows users to install add-ons that add extra functionality, and these add-ons can be downloaded from the Google Workspace Marketplace. Some of the plagiarism checker Google Docs extensions are free of charge, while some are paid. Let’s look at how you can install the add-ons and use them.
Here is how to check if a document is plagiarized using a Google Doc add-on:
- Open Google Docs in your web browser and open the document where you wish to check for plagiarism.
- Here, click on Extensions in the top ribbon and then click on Add-ons in the dropdown menu. Here, click on Get add-ons. This will open the Google Workspace Marketplace window in the middle of the screen.
- In the search bar, type and search the “plagiarism” keyword. This will show several add-ons you can install into Google Docs.
- We recommend using one with a high rating and a larger number of downloads. In this example, we will download and use the PlagiarismCheck.org add-on.
- Click on the blue Install button on the add-ons page.
- A dialog box will pop up asking for permission. Click on Continue to view the specific permissions. To install the add-on, click on Allow, which will grant the add-on permissions, and install it.
- After installing the add-on, head back to the document and refresh it. After the document reloads, click on Extensions, PlagiarismCheck.org, and then on Start.
Some extensions may require you to create an account for the service, while the paid ones may ask you for payment before you can use them.
Google Plagiarism Check Using Third-Party Services
You can easily find a Google Docs plagiarism checker free on the Google Workspace Marketplace. However, some of these tools are unreliable as they aren’t 100% accurate with the plagiarism analysis.
Thankfully, you can use one of the several online plagiarism checkers to check your documents. Some of these are:
- Scribbr: It is highly recommended for students as it is a great essay originality check Google Docs tool.
- Grammarly: It is great for checking texts for plagiarism and features a built-in Google Sheets spell-check. The best part is that most people already use the Grammarly check plagiarism tool, so they should be familiar with its interface.
- Copyscape: It’s a great tool for bloggers and writers as it can perform plagiarism checks on the entire document. Most users find it to be the most effective plagiarism checker online. This tool just requires you to copy-paste the text into it.
- Quetext: This is also an effective plagiarism checker that detects most of the matches in the document, but some users have found that it isn’t the most effective.
Grammarly: The Best Third-Party Service
Of those mentioned above, we recommend the free Grammarly add-on as the best plagiarism checker service. It integrates beautifully with Google Docs and has plenty of other features to boot. In fact, if you’re also willing to upgrade to Grammarly premium, you can get over 400 different types of literary checks, including tone and voice editing. So, if you can afford it, we suggest you get a subscription to Grammarly premium.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Google Docs Have a Plagiarism Checker?
Google Docs has a plagiarism checker, but this feature is only available for educators and students that use it for assignments. Normal users cannot access this feature, so they can use a Google Docs add-on or a third-party plagiarism-checking service.
Is Google Plagiarism Checker Free?
The Google Plagiarism Checker is not free for most users as the feature is only available for Google Workspace for Education users. You can use online free tools for this, but the free versions often have restrictions such as word count, reliability, or accuracy.
How Can I Check the Originality of Content?
You can check the originality of written content using a plagiarism checker tool such as copyscape.com, which can compare the written content with online published sources and shows you how much of the content matches the sources. You can also use browser add-ons such as Grammarly.
Wrapping up How to Check for Plagiarism in Google Docs
Now you know how to check for plagiarism in Google Docs in two different ways. Of the third-party services, we recommend Grammarly. But, using a reliable Google Docs extension is also a great way to check for matching content online.
Related:
- How to Add Grammarly to Google Docs
- How to Wrap Text in Google Docs
- How to Search for a Word in Google Docs [Quick Guide]
- How to Open PDF in Google Docs and Fix Common Issues
- How to Convert PDF to Google Sheets in 5 Minutes [Easy]
- Easily Insert a Google Sheet Into Google Docs
- Google Docs Programming Languages: A Peek Behind the Curtain
