How to Check Your Essay for Plagiarism Before You Submit (Free, Step by Step)
You wrote the essay yourself. But somewhere around 1 a.m. you pasted a few lines from a website into your notes "just for reference," and now you can't remember which sentences are yours. Sound familiar?
That's how most plagiarism happens. Not deliberate copying, but small accidents. The good news: you can catch them yourself in about ten minutes before you submit. Here's how.
Why "accidental plagiarism" happens
Most students who get flagged weren't trying to cheat. The usual causes are:
- Patchwriting: keeping a source's sentence structure and swapping in a few synonyms.
- Lost sources: copying a line into your notes and forgetting it wasn't yours.
- Missing citations: quoting or paraphrasing correctly but forgetting to credit the source.
- Self-plagiarism: reusing chunks of an essay you already submitted for another class without permission.
All four are fixable before you hit submit, if you check.
What a plagiarism checker can (and can't) see
Before you trust any score, know what the tool actually compares your writing against.
A free online checker like the EssayWiz plagiarism checker compares your sentences with public websites and book collections (EssayWiz searches the web plus Google Books, Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive).
What free checkers can't see:
- Private databases of papers other students have submitted (your school's system may keep one)
- Paywalled journal articles
- Your classmates' work
So a low score on a free tool is a good sign, not a guarantee. If your university lets you submit a draft to its own system first, do that too.
How to check your essay for plagiarism, step by step
Step 1: Gather your sources first
Open your reference list and notes side by side. If you find a quote or idea with no source attached, track it down now, before you run any checker. A checker can tell you a sentence matches something. It can't tell you whether you meant to cite it.
Step 2: Run the sections you used sources for
Free tools usually have word limits (EssayWiz's free plan checks 200 words at a time). Don't waste them on your conclusion. Prioritise:
- Your introduction and background/context paragraphs
- Any literature review or "what experts say" section
- Paragraphs you wrote with a source open in another tab
On essaywiz.app, sign in with Google, open the plagiarism checker, paste a section, and click Run.
Step 3: Read the flagged sentences, not just the %
The overall similarity percentage is the least useful number on the report. What matters is which sentences matched and why. For each highlighted sentence, decide which category it falls into:
| Flag type | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Direct quote | You used the author's exact words | Add quotation marks + citation |
| Close paraphrase | Your wording is too near the original | Rewrite from memory, then cite |
| Common phrase | e.g., "climate change is a global issue" | Usually fine, leave it |
| Reference list | Your bibliography matches other bibliographies | Normal, ignore |
Step 4: Fix each flag the right way
Here's the mistake many students make: they see a highlighted sentence and just shuffle the words until the checker stops flagging it. That doesn't fix the problem. If the idea came from someone else, it still needs a citation.
The honest fix:
- Close the source.
- Explain the idea out loud or on paper in your own words, as if to a friend.
- Write that version into your essay.
- Add the citation.
If you're stuck rewording a sentence, a paraphrasing tool can show you other ways to phrase your own sentence. Treat its output as a suggestion, keep your meaning, and still cite the original idea.
Step 5: Do a final citation check
Make sure every in-text citation has a matching entry in your reference list, and that you've used one style consistently (APA, MLA or Chicago, whatever your instructor asked for). A citation generator can build references from a link, DOI, ISBN or book title, but double-check author names and dates against the original.
What's a "good" similarity score?
There's no universal "safe" number. A 15% score made up of correctly quoted and cited material can be completely fine, while 5% from one uncited paragraph can be a real problem. Instructors look at what matched, not just the total. If your course has a stated threshold, follow it. Otherwise, aim for zero uncited matches.
Is paraphrasing plagiarism?
Paraphrasing is not plagiarism when two things are true:
- The wording and sentence structure are really yours.
- You cite where the idea came from.
It becomes plagiarism when you keep the original structure with a few swapped words, or when you leave out the citation. A quick test: if your sentence and the source share a run of four or more identical words in the same order, quote it or rewrite it.
Quick pre-submission checklist
- ☐ Every quote has quotation marks and a citation
- ☐ Every paraphrased idea has a citation
- ☐ Source-heavy sections run through a plagiarism checker
- ☐ Each flagged sentence reviewed and fixed (not just reworded)
- ☐ Reference list matches in-text citations
- ☐ No reused text from your own past assignments (unless allowed)
- ☐ Grammar and clarity check done (try the grammar checker)
FAQ
Is the EssayWiz plagiarism checker free? Yes. The free plan checks up to 200 words at a time. Pro removes the word limit for $5 USD a month or $39.99 a year.
Will a clean result on a free checker mean Turnitin won't flag my essay? No free tool can promise that, because school systems also compare against private databases of submitted papers. Use a free checker to catch and fix problems, and rely on proper citations as your real protection.
Does EssayWiz save my essay? Only if you tick the box allowing it to be used to improve EssayWiz, and you can delete saved texts at any time.
Can I check a whole essay at once? On the free plan, check it in 200-word sections, starting with the parts where you used sources. Pro has no word limit.
Check your own writing, cite your sources, submit with confidence. → Try the free plagiarism checker
Try the free plagiarism checker