Imagine submitting your college essay or research paper only to be flagged for plagiarism despite meticulously putting together every single word. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common fear among writers, whether students or professionals.
While plagiarism can be accidental in some cases, it can have lasting effects on one’s academic record and reputation. To save ourselves from the potential perils of plagiarism, we rely on digital tools to keep our written work original and plagiarism-free.
In this article, we’ll focus on two major players in online plagiarism detection: Grammarly’s Plagiarism Checker and Turnitin. Both platforms offer unique features, pros, and cons, but which one is worth your attention and investment? Read on to find out!
1. Introduction: Grammarly and Turnitin
Maintaining originality and authenticity is of utmost importance in academic writing. To ensure that your work is free from plagiarized content or unintentional instances of similarity, there are two widely popular and trusted online tools: Grammarly and Turnitin.
Designed to assist writers, students, and academic instructors in adhering to high standards of writing, both platforms offer unique features to help detect plagiarism and enhance the quality of your written work.
1.0 Grammarly
Grammarly is powered by Artificial Intelligence technology and primarily focuses on identifying and correcting grammatical and logical errors in a document while also providing insights into plagiarized content.
Grammarly is known for its intuitive user interface and advanced algorithms and appeals to a vast user base, offering a free version for basic writing suggestions and a premium plan for a more comprehensive analysis, including the ability to detect plagiarism. It runs your content against millions of publications and produces a plagiarism score to help gauge the originality of your work.
1.1 Turnitin
On the other hand, Turnitin is specifically designed to test the originality of student’s work and is mainly employed by academic institutions. Boasting a more extensive database and a highly accurate search algorithm, Turnitin is often considered the go-to tool for plagiarism detection. It crawls through active and archived publications, indexing over 91 billion web pages and providing a detailed report highlighting plagiarized sections and their sources.
As you embark on your writing journey, knowing the distinct features and functions of Grammarly and Turnitin can be invaluable in ensuring your work is polished, original, and adheres to the highest academic and professional integrity standards.
2. Turnitin’s Plagiarism Detection Process
When you submit your document to Turnitin, it scans your text for possible matches against more than 1.7 billion websites, offline databases, academic journals, and student papers.
Turnitin then generates a report after scanning your document. This report provides a detailed analysis of the matches found and showcases the percentage of similarity in your work. An ideal plagiarism score in Turnitin is considered to be 25% or below, ensuring your work is original and properly cited.
Turnitin also comes with a built-in spell and grammar checker, further enhancing the quality of your submitted work. However, unlike Grammarly, once you submit your work to Turnitin, you do not have the option to edit it directly. Therefore, it is essential to thoroughly proofread and edit your document before submitting it to the platform.
3. Grammarly’s Plagiarism Checking Technology
With its extensive database of over 16 billion websites, academic papers from ProQuest, and private documents, Grammarly ensures that your work is thoroughly checked for any potential plagiarism. This advanced tool is designed to help you maintain academic integrity and confidently create original content.
Upon uploading your document to Grammarly, the plagiarism checker scans your work and underlines any instances of duplicated text. It provides you with a link to the source, allowing you to easily verify the match and make any necessary adjustments, such as adding the correct citation. Grammarly also generates an originality score, clearly indicating how much of your work is unique.
One major advantage of using Grammarly’s plagiarism checker over other tools like Turnitin is the ability to edit your work before it is submitted. Unlike Turnitin, Grammarly does not automatically submit your work to an instructor, thus granting you the opportunity to make changes and ensure the originality of your text. This feature makes Grammarly an ideal choice for both students and professionals who want to create high-quality, plagiarism-free content.
4. Differences Between Turnitin and Grammarly Results
As you embark on your search for the ideal plagiarism checker, understanding the differences between Turnitin and Grammarly is crucial for choosing the right tool.
First of all, let’s consider the target audience for each tool. Turnitin is specifically designed for students and teachers in academic settings, while Grammarly is crafted for a wider user base, including professionals, bloggers, and freelancers. This distinction is crucial, as it directly influences each tool’s features and services.
Moreover, beyond plagiarism checking, Grammarly and Turnitin provide distinct features. Grammarly is essentially a writing assistant that offers robust grammar and spelling checks while also providing support for tone and vocabulary enhancement. On the other hand, Turnitin focuses more on plagiarism checking, grading, and allowing instructors to provide feedback on their students’ work.
Also, Turnitin offers a collaborative dashboard that simplifies assigning tasks to students and enables teachers to communicate suggestions quickly. This feature is invaluable for educators, as it streamlines the grading process and helps manage multiple student submissions.
Conversely, Grammarly provides a real-life editor, which can offer more comprehensive feedback on potentially subtle mistakes, further enhancing the writing process.
It’s important to note that Turnitin may be more expensive for individual users, as it’s only available through academic institutions or custom pricing plans. Conversely, Grammarly offers more flexible pricing options, starting from $29.95 per month, making it potentially more accessible for individual users.
5. Editing Options: Grammarly vs. Turnitin
Regarding editing options, Grammarly and Turnitin have different approaches and are suitable for different purposes.
Grammarly is primarily used as a writing assistant and proofreading tool, providing you with real-time feedback on your grammar, punctuation, spelling, and style. You can easily identify and edit duplicate content, ensuring proper citations are included before submitting your work. Additionally, the real-life editor feature can help you spot more subtle errors and guide you to improve your writing.
Turnitin, on the other hand, is a text-matching software specifically designed for students and academic institutions. It is primarily used to evaluate the originality of essays, papers, and other assignments by comparing the text against billions of sources.
Once a document is submitted, Turnitin generates an “Originality Report” highlighting potential plagiarism instances linked to the sources. However, it does not provide editing options or suggestions as Grammarly does.
6. Grammarly’s Unique Selling Point: Spelling and Grammar Checker
Grammarly’s unique selling point lies in its powerful spelling and grammar checker features. As a writer, you know that your work needs to be flawless in terms of both grammar and spelling to make the right impression on your readers. With Grammarly, you can be confident that your writing will be polished and professional.
One of the most significant advantages of using Grammarly is its real-time feedback. As you type, Grammarly will underline any errors and suggest corrections. This means you can catch mistakes as you go rather than going through your entire piece after writing to find them. This speeds up the editing process considerably, allowing you to spend more time on the creative aspects of writing.
Another benefit of Grammarly is its extensive coverage of grammatical issues. This tool will pinpoint any writing issues, from misplaced commas to missing articles, helping you improve your skills over time. The clear explanations provided with each suggestion make it easy to understand why a particular change is necessary, which aids in learning and personal growth as a writer.
However, Grammarly’s unique selling point doesn’t end at grammar and spelling checks. The tool also offers suggestions for enhancing vocabulary and finding the perfect word to convey your message. This can be a game-changer for writers looking to elevate their work and avoid repetitive language.
The premium version of Grammarly goes a step further, providing advanced suggestions for writing style, tone, and clarity. These features can help you tailor your work to a specific audience, ensuring your message is both engaging and easy to understand.
7. Grammarly Premium Features and Pricing
Grammarly Premium is a powerful, comprehensive tool designed for professionals who require top-notch writing assistance. With its range of features, you can enhance both the technical aspects of your writing and the tone and style to ensure your documents are polished and effective.
In addition to the free basic writing suggestions, the Premium version provides advanced grammar, punctuation, and contextual spelling checks, making your writing flawless and accurate.
One of the standout features of Grammarly Premium is its sophisticated vocabulary enhancement tool. This allows you to replace overused or vague words with more specific and impactful alternatives, elevating your writing to a professional standard. The tool also incorporates suggestions for adjusting sentence structure, ensuring a smooth and engaging read.
Another key feature of Grammarly Premium is the plagiarism checker, which compares your work to over 16 billion websites, academic papers, and private documents to ensure originality. This is invaluable for maintaining high standards of content and avoiding potential copyright infringements.
Grammarly Premium also offers insights into your writing style and tone, ensuring that your document is appropriate for its intended audience, purpose, and context. This additional layer of analysis allows you to tailor your writing to be persuasive, informative, or professional, depending on your requirements.
Moreover, Grammarly is highly accessible, with a web editor and browser extensions available for Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Firefox. This level of integration means you can easily utilize the tool on various platforms, such as Google Docs, emails, and more.
Regarding pricing, Grammarly Premium is available for individual users at $12 per month, with the option to save by subscribing quarterly or annually for under $150 per year. For business users, a plan for up to 149 users can be purchased, though it comes at a higher price.
8. Who is Grammarly and Turnitin For?
Grammarly and Turnitin are both powerful tools designed to help improve your writing and ensure it is original and plagiarism-free. However, they cater to different audiences and are suitable for specific purposes.
Grammarly is ideal for professionals, bloggers, freelancers, and anyone who uses the written word frequently. It’s beneficial for people looking to improve their writing, correct spelling and grammar mistakes, and enhance vocabulary. The platform also features a plagiarism checker for added peace of mind. With Grammarly, you can continuously edit, revise, and refine your content, making it perfect for content creators and professionals who seek to improve their writing skills.
On the other hand, Turnitin is specifically designed for students, teachers, and those involved in academia. It is a plagiarism detection system for checking essays, assignments, and other written work. The primary goal of Turnitin is to identify instances of plagiarism and help maintain academic integrity. The platform allows teachers to easily check submissions for plagiarism, grade work, and provide feedback to students.
In summary, Grammarly is best suited for individuals seeking a comprehensive writing assistant that can improve their overall writing skills and check for plagiarism. Turnitin is more suitable for academic settings, where there is a focus on maintaining academic integrity and preventing plagiarism within student work. Choosing the right tool for you will depend on your specific needs, whether it be professional writing enhancement or ensuring the originality and integrity of academic assignments.
