Grammarly is a piece of software for analyzing written works and highlighting all grammatical errors and inappropriate word use. Questions have always been asked on whether it can also be used to detect plagiarism. By the end of this article, we are going to understand in very clear terms if Grammarly can detect and highlight plagiarism.
Grammarly can be installed into computers and phones and used to check sentences, punctuation marks, and phrases in any type of document. It is usually free to some degree and thus accessible to everyone.
Does Grammarly Detect Plagiarism?
Grammarly detects plagiarism but its reliability is below that of Turnitin or Plagscan. Given that Grammarly has been developed by many software experts in natural language processing, it can be used to check for plagiarism although its main focus is grammar.
Grammarly system has been trained to compare any written work with the parent sources and by doing this, it highlights unique words in your work, simplifying identification or detection of plagiarized content and to take appropriate remedial action in good time.
Grammarly can never beat anti-plagiarism software such as Turnitin or Plagscan.
It is worth noting that this software is very essential to both students and teachers, lecturers and literature professionals though it cannot prevent them from plagiarizing. From the ability to detect errors in written work, Grammarly helps in coming up with quality work and improves understanding of the text.
If used correctly, the following can be detected by Grammarly; –
- Unoriginal content – If one uses quotes or paraphrases someone else’s work without recognizing and stating the original owner, such actions may amount to unoriginal content and are likely to be treated as plagiarism. The use of Grammarly can help the writer to avoid conflicts of copyright issues because it can be used to check and confirm if your work is original and can be published on blogs, websites, journals magazines, etc.
- Plagiarism; – a written work amounts to plagiarism if the writer copies the work of someone else and has not considered attributing the copied work to the original owner/author. The program will analyze the text and compare it with several other texts that are already published on the websites and analyze possible cases of plagiarism.
Is Grammarly plagiarism-free?
No, a document may appear plagiarism-free in Grammarly but a different software may detect the same work as unoriginal. It is not ideal to rely on Grammarly alone for originality reports. For accuracy, authenticity, and originality of any work, the writer must have two versions of plagiarism which are; –
- Free version. The free version checks and detects plagiarism but is always limited on the extent of applicability in performing such roles.
- Premium version. Unlike the free version, the premium version of Grammarly can perform unlimited actions on a written work by helping the user to check and highlight any plagiarized text. In this way, the writer escapes/avoids the problems of propriety and copyrights. In the premium version, the user must subscribe and make payments to enjoy the unlimited services thus making this detector to be not entirely free.
Pros and cons of Grammarly plagiarism checker
Advantages
1. Correction of grammar automatically
The use of Grammarly helps writers in coming up with very accurate, objective, and reliable writing works because it readily detects and checks for any errors of grammar and even provides suggestions on how to correct and make the whole thing look better. It improves the grammar of the writer and enables them to avoid mistakes of inappropriate use of phrases, tenses, and punctuation marks as well as avoidance of repetition of words that sometimes happen unknowingly.
2. Highly accurate
Grammarly compares written work with each other from other sources e.g. dictionaries, websites, reference books, etc. to help in checking all errors. This advanced ability to compare materials using such sources leads to obtaining accurate and reliable results. It is advantageous for those who handle and manage large documents and information of various kinds as it takes care of terms that may appear unclear and confusing.
3. Plagiarism checks and proofreading
As we have seen and established in the previous sections, Grammarly can check and detect plagiarism in any text. This software contains an internal plagiarism checker which helps identifying copied contents from other sources. Since it can do proofreading very fast, it can be useful in cases where the writer has large amounts of information to check and verify that can otherwise lead to time wastage and inaccuracy if given to people to perform
4. Works on multiple devices
Unlike other software which fails or misbehaves when handled by so many users, this software remains active and reliable even when connected to as many devices as can be done. Its accuracy and functionality are not affected in any way by such actions thus very efficient. This ability to perform unaffected is because it does not need any special software or hardware to run like other functions.
5. It will save you time
Grammarly has a feature that can auto-correct in case there is any grammatical error or inappropriate word use in a document. The erratic sections will be highlighted and the user will be able to see and perform the corrections using the shortest time possible using the suggestions provided in the software
Disadvantages
1. It is slow
Even though Grammarly has been said to be very accurate and reliable, it has also been found to be very slow because it does not do the corrections by itself. The software simply highlights, and then the user affects the corrections where required using the suggestions availed to them by the software. This can be a time-consuming activity more so if the user wants to act on a large document. Also, there is always a five seconds lag time taken by the software before it starts any action on the material/text. In cases where large amounts of data or information are to be checked, the Grammarly software must be allowed some time to run through the whole text to be able to highlight the errors that need corrections.
2. Costly
As we have seen previously that the software though has a free version whose actions on a given text are limited, the software appears costly because if the writer wants accurate work that is devoid of any error, they will have to use the premium version whose actions on a text are not limited in any way or the other. In this case, all manner of errors will be shown and subjected to correction. The writer must therefore be ready to incur costs that come with the premium version for effective grammar check.