Plagiarism, the act of taking someone else’s work and passing it off as one’s own, is a serious academic offense. It can result in failing grades, suspension, or even expulsion. As such, it’s important to be able to check your papers for plagiarism before submitting them.
There are two main ways to check for plagiarism: manually and electronically. Manual checking involves comparing your paper to the original sources to look for similarities. Electronic checking uses software to compare your paper to a database of other papers to look for matches.