Plagiarism checkers and plagiarism removers are both tools that help you deal with plagiarism in written content. Writers or students who are new to the concept of plagiarism can confuse both tools; however, they’re vastly different.
Understanding the differences between the two tools is important to know when to use which during plagiarism removal.
What Is a Plagiarism Checker?
A plagiarism checker is a tool that scans your input text and compares it with online content, including content available on the web, in their own as well as other academic databases. This content can include websites, books, journals, and papers submitted by other students and professionals.
The purpose of this tool is to find text that matches your input text. If it’s able to find matching text online that matches a part of your text or the entirety of it, that part or the entire text will be marked as plagiarized through highlights.
One confusion about this tool is that it modifies your writing. But no, that’s not true. A plagiarism checker doesn’t rewrite your text. It only highlights matching text, which might be intentionally or unintentionally copied from the source (the website page, book, or paper whose text matches yours).
Once a plagiarism scan is done, a plagiarism checker provides:
A plagiarism or similarity percentage
Matched sentences or paragraphs
Links to the original sources
A detailed similarity report
The exact nature of results depends on the individual tool you’re using.
What Is a Plagiarism Remover?
A plagiarism remover is a tool that rewrites your input text to reduce its similarity with existing content. It changes the text’s words and sentence structure to change its original wording, which might be getting flagged as plagiarized in a plagiarism checker.
So the purpose of a plagiarism remover is to reduce similarity in text. Its job is not to find similarities, like a plagiarism checker. It only rewrites the text to remove them.
Naturally, a plagiarism remover doesn’t give you some sort of plagiarism report. It instead gives you a rewritten version of your input text, which it rewrites using AI-powered paraphrasing:
Rewrite sentences
Replace repetitive wording
Change sentence structure
Improve uniqueness without distorting the meaning
This is why a plagiarism remover is often used alongside a plagiarism checker. The checker helps identify similarities, whereas the remover helps remove them.
Key Differences Between a Plagiarism Checker and a Plagiarism Remover
Both a plagiarism checker and a plagiarism remover help maintain originality and perform fundamentally different jobs. Let’s take a look at their key differences:
1. Purpose
A plagiarism checker scans your content to find and detect similarities with existing content. These similarities may include word-for-word (exact) matches or sentence structure matches.
A plagiarism remover helps rewrite your text to reduce its similarities and make it unique.
2. Output
A plagiarism checker generates a similarity or “plagiarism” report. This report includes things like a similarity score and the matching sources.
A plagiarism remover generates a rewritten version of your text that can be copied or downloaded.
3. Content Modification
A plagiarism checker does not change your input text. It takes the text as it is, scans it, and displays the similarity report without altering a single word.
A plagiarism remover alters your text. It takes the text, modifies it to make it different, and generates the output.
4. Primary Goal
The primary goal of a plagiarism checker is to find and detect similarities.
The primary goal of a plagiarism remover is to fix plagiarized text.
5. When It Is Used
In terms of workflow, a plagiarism checker is used after finishing the draft and before final submission.
A plagiarism remover is used after you find similarities in the text, usually using a plagiarism checker, which need to be reduced.
When Should You Use a Plagiarism Checker?
Knowing when to use each tool is key to effective plagiarism removal.
A plagiarism checker is best used during the editing phase, once you’re done writing the content. Use this tool when you want to verify your writing’s originality, in situations like:
A plagiarism report shows excessive similarity
You need to rewrite quoted or copied draft material (while still citing sources where appropriate)
Existing articles need fresh wording
You want to improve uniqueness without changing the overall meaning
When Should You Use a Plagiarism Remover?
A plagiarism remover is best used during the editing phase, once you’re done writing the draft. Use it after you’ve found similarities in text and want to remove them. This can happen in the following situations:
A plagiarism report shows excessive similarity
You need to rewrite quoted or copied draft material (while still citing sources where appropriate)
Existing articles need fresh wording
You want to improve uniqueness without changing the overall meaning
Can You Use Both Together?
Absolutely. You can and should use both tools together.
A plagiarism checker and plagiarism remover are like two wheels of the same bicycle. One helps you detect plagiarism while the other helps remove it. Although you can do one of the tasks manually if you want, especially rewriting the text to remove plagiarism, using both tools saves time and effort.
Here’s what a typical workflow looks like:
Write your draft
Run it through a plagiarism checker.
Review the highlighted sections.
Rewrite those sections using a plagiarism remover or manual editing.
Run the plagiarism checker again to confirm that the similarity has been reduced.
Repeat steps 3-5 until you’re done.
This workflow will require you to switch between both tools frequently, so you will have to keep both open. However, if you want to avoid switching back and forth between tabs, you can look for plagiarism tools that combine both a checker and a remover in one place, such as our PlagiarismRemover.co. Doing so will optimize your workflow without having to jump between tabs; simply check plagiarism and remove it on the spot.
Just remember to avoid checking and removing plagiarism before your draft is complete, because it will likely go through significant changes. Also, remember to cite your sources to credit them.
Comparison: Plagiarism Checker vs Plagiarism Remover
Conclusion: Which Tool Is Right for You?
Both plagiarism checkers and removers are useful in their own ways, so the right tool depends on your intended goal.
If you want to just detect plagiarism in your content, a plagiarism checker is the right choice.
But if you want to rewrite plagiarized text to reduce similarities, plagiarism remover becomes the right choice.
The best way to use these tools is in combination. Make both of them a part of your writing workflow to maximize your content’s originality.
You can always rely on PlagiarismRemover.co for both checking and eliminating unwanted duplication!