My students turn in essays on a regular basis. Sometimes, they are tempted to cut corners or copy and paste information from various web sources, such as Wikipedia. They often turn in essays, which I have to make sure are accurately attributed and not copied from other websites. Often, I find it easier to have my students do their own plagiarism checks before they turn in their essays and I check them. Below are several free websites for students and teachers to do plagiarism checks for free. For more ideas on how to use web tools and apps to enhance student writing skills check out our webinar recordings, Teaching Writing to Digital Learners and Teaching Writing with Digital Tools.
To learn more about integrating technology to support English language learners, attend our TESOL webinars.
Plagiarism Checkers
These websites have you copy and paste your students’ text and some allow uploading documents. Most require no registration, signups, or downloads and are free.
- Plagiarism Checker was made for teachers to check if students copied papers from the Internet. They provide step-by-step instructions.
- PaperRater is a free checker for plagiarism that generates a report. They also do a grammar and spelling check.
- QueText is a free plagiarism checker, which supports multiple languages and doesn’t require registration.
- Small SEO Tools and Duplichecker provide unlimited checks with no registration for up to 1000 words.
- Penster allows up to 5 free checks a month without registering. If you register, you get more.
- PBWorks does require signup but is free and a great web tool for teachers and students to create collaborative wiki sites (similar to websites). Each page and essay can easily be checked for plagiarism with their partner Dustball.
Learn about Plagiarism
- TED ED Lesson Plan on The Punishable Perils of Plagiarism
- Video: 5 Tips to Avoid Accidental Plagiarism
- Plagiarism.org has various resources for learning about plagiarism and preventing it.
- Turn It In has a great infographic about the 10 different types of plagiarism with examples.
- Larry Ferlazzo has a collection of resources for learning about plagiarism.
