Using other people's texts without permission to publish them on blogs and websites, or to present academic papers and other purposes, is an ugly habit that has become worryingly widespread in recent years. Fortunately, there are more and better tools to detect blatant copies. In today's post we are going to talk about one of the simplest: How to use Word to find out if a text is plagiarism.
That's right: you don't need to download any specialised software or use any kind of online service, which is often paid for. The well-known Microsoft Office text editor (now Microsoft 365), which so many of us use on a daily basis, can help you with this task.
The purpose of this tool is to enable Office 365 users to perform these types of checks. In the long run, this will contribute to increasing the originality of our texts and, at the same time, to learning the most appropriate rules when citing authors and sources.
Detect plagiarism with Word
Word provides us with a trick very useful for detecting plagiarism, whether in a local document or online. A method by which we can clear up any doubts without having to use applications other than the text editor itself.
Although it may seem obvious, before using Word to detect plagiarism in the text, we must make sure that our computer is properly connected to the Internet. Then, to carry out this check, these are the steps we must follow:
- Firstly, We open Word and load the document that we wish to analyze.
- Then, in the toolbar at the top, we click on "Editor", option located on the far right.
- In the new window that appears we find different options. The one we must select is «Similarity».
- Finally, we click on the button «Check similarity to online sources» to start the verification process.
After a few moments, which may be more or less long depending on the length of the document, the result will appear expressed as a percentage. The message we are going to see is more or less like this: «X% of the text is similar to online sources»If the percentage is high, we can be sure that most of the text has been copied.
That is how Become helps us to know if the text in question is plagiarism or not. In the example we included above, we see a degree of similarity of 50%. That is, more than suspicious.
Other online tools to detect plagiarism
In addition to Word, there are other ways to find out if a text contains plagiarism, in whole or in part. These websites are specialized in the task of discovering whether a text has been copied. Or if it contains “too many” matches. These are particularly useful tools for students and teachers, but also for any professional who makes a living writing in one way or another.
There are limited free options, while there are others where you have to pay to access advanced features. Choosing one or the other will depend on your needs, as well as other factors such as ease of use, accuracy, and analysis capabilities. Here are some of the best options we have:
Copyscape
Perhaps the most popular website when it comes to plagiarism detection. It is used by many website owners, bloggers and content writers in general. Internet search engines severely penalize duplicate content, which is why it is so important to verify the originality of all texts.
Copyscape It is a free tool, but offers a premium version with advanced search options and other benefits.
Link: Copyscape
Plan
Another outstanding tool for detecting plagiarism that uses Artificial Intelligence technology. Plan It offers us a deep analysis, capable of distinguishing between intentional plagiarism and casual plagiarism (which also exists). Like Word, it shows the results as a percentage and highlights the copied fragments in the text.
Link: Plan
Quetext
If we are looking for a simple and easy-to-use duplicate or plagiarized content detector, Quetext is one of the best options. For this task, it uses advanced technologies such as DeepSearch. Its citation and reference function is worth highlighting, which is very useful for avoiding accidental plagiarism. Its free version is restricted to a maximum word limit and a paid version with many more functions.
Link: Quetext
Finally, it is necessary to insist on The importance of plagiarism detection toolsThese are essential tools for ensuring the originality of any content on the Internet, a jungle in which copying and plagiarism are, unfortunately, the order of the day.