How to Use the Copyleaks Similarity Report?

When compared to other online plagiarism checkers, Copyleaks uses search algorithms supported by artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to compare identical, paraphrased and similar text, and give a comprehensive similarity report to help the user learn, understand and avoid plagiarism.

5 Ways to Make Use of Copyleaks Similarity Report

The similarity report provided by Copyleaks can help both students and teachers in 5 ways:

Comparing Matched Areas with the Original Source

When students write and submit assignments, it is natural to have them matched with any of the text from the original source. They would have cause this by paraphrasing the sentences or paragraphs or by using quotations, without referencing them. Copyleaks helps students or lecturers to scan the writing and get the similarity report, which facilitates them to compare the matched content with the original text. 

Students can use the Text Compare tool to assist them with easy comparison of their document with the text file or a URL. You can make changes to the sentences on the tool window by copy-pasting the matched text. It can be done on any device and using any text-file types like txt, doc, docx, HTML, ppt, pdf, odt, etc.

You can easily detect the similarities and correct them using the diff checker. The results provided after the similarity check are of high quality owing to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. With a duplicate file finder tool, you can compare the two text files of the same content, and learn the difference. 

In case of comparing Google docs, the latest compare texts tool can be comfortably used on multiple platforms for direct comparison. Where the file contains Asian characters, the tool further supports it to facilitate easy comparison of documents from other languages.   

How Effectively You Have Paraphrased the Text?

When you paraphrase, you rewrite someone’s idea or your own published idea by summarizing it in your own words. In a way, it helps you synthesize information from original sources, and focus on important details. Paraphrasing asks for citation in parenthetical or narrative format. You have to use a proper style guide to cite your sources to avoid plagiarism. It is essential to understand the ideas clearly before you try paraphrasing. By interpreting the text in your own words, you demonstrate your skill of understanding the text.

Using thesaurus to paraphrase leads to patch-writing, which may not pass the anti-plagiarism check. Your grasp of the language shows that you use your own words and not from the dictionary, which may sometimes go wrong. To paraphrase effectively, you need to change the sentence structure and the words to look unique and original.      

Did You Cite the Sources Appropriately?

Students of higher education are mostly engaged in academic writing. It includes research journal, essays, project report, etc. When writing, they should avoid plagiarism by citing sources appropriately. By not doing so, you show that the ideas or concept expressed are your own and not borrowed from an original author. You cause citation issues when you use somebody’s ideas more than your own thoughts. You can consider the following questions to solve the citation issues:

• Did I interpret the test from the original source adequately by giving your opinion and reasons?
• Did I use the cited text to support my argument in thesis?
• Did I write paragraphs beginning with a topic sentence and end them with my own views or points?
• Have I referred other sources rather than relying on one?
• Did I include so many direct quotations?

If you could answer the questions above, you could use citations properly, and only in places they support your thesis or essay. 

Revise Your Work

Unlike Turnitin, which majorly focuses on checking and comparing students’ writing assignments with those in their databases, Copyleaks offers a deep search for similar or paraphrased content across a wide range of databases. Turnitin has a different problem that its similarity report is interpreted based on different scoring scenarios and in most cases, it is left to the discretion of instructors to solve confusing or unclear similarity issues. The similarity report from Copyleaks gives you an opportunity to revise the plagiarism detected areas in your work.

The highlighted text shows that you have failed to paraphrase the original content appropriately. You can solve this problem by either removing the text if the percentage of similarity is high, and rewrite it in your own words or use more of your words to paraphrase the text if the percentage of duplicate content is low. When you decide to paraphrase it, always cite the source. Similarly, when quoting, follow the guidelines such as:

• Using quotation marks
• Introducing the quotation
• Providing references or citations

Instructors can help students know how to give quotes correctly, and avoid plagiarism.

Using It as a Learning Tool

When a student submits a writing assignment, the evaluator or lecturer has it pass through the API integrated plagiarism detector to check for any copied content, and generate a similarity report. With Copyleaks, you can have a comprehensive similarity report, which provides the matched areas highlighted in different colors to help the user understand the amount of similar text identified. The evaluator can help the student use the similarity report as a learning tool and avoid plagiarism in writing.

The Copyleaks similarity report shows the pages with duplicate content and similarity score for students to know the plagiarized content in their submission. When the students can study and learn, the university can preserve the academic integrity by detecting plagiarism, as well as collusion, through the similarity report on the writing assignments submitted. Teachers or lecturers can advise the student to check the authenticity of their work before submission. They can go through the report, and address the duplicate content issues. The highlighted areas in red need to be rewritten, and they can ask students to paraphrase the text in their own words and reference them appropriately. In case of students who have used the other students’ work and receive a high score in a similarity report, they can be advised and helped to rework on the plagiarized content to avoid academic disintegrity.