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Is Academic Proofreading Cheating? Here’s What the Universities Have to Say

Is academic proofreading cheating? This question raises its head regularly. In this article, we take a look at what the universities have to say.

Is academic proofreading cheating?

Dissertation proofreading services and essay editing are often (falsely) associated with cheating.

Yes, there can be a fine line between being helpful and doing someone else’s work on their behalf. However, the best editors know how to refrain from crossing that line to ensure your work is ethical, faithful, and something you can be proud to call your own.

When you start a university or college course, you’ll likely be asked to sign up and agree to a set of rules concerning plagiarism, cheating, and false representation. That’s perfectly normal and to be expected.

Of course, it’s clear as day that you should never use dissertation writing services or pay someone to write your essay.

But does essay proofreading break these rules?

Is Academic Editing Cheating?

Academic editors are often accused of helping students to cheat. However, this type of accusation is highly offensive to an ethical professional editor.

Proofreading is no different from most jobs: It has an ethical aspect that needs to be respected. For instance, it is considered highly unethical for professors to tell students the answers to exam papers. The majority of professors wouldn’t dream of doing so; however, some do. Does that mean all professors are guilty of helping students to cheat?

Absolutely not. The majority of professors adhere to the ethical expectations associated with their profession. The same is true of professional editors.

So why is academic editing so closely associated with cheating?

One of the problems is that online services, such as Vappingo’s essay editing service , are relatively new. In the past, people were not able to access academic proofreading assistance with such ease.

What did they do instead?

They turned to friends and family members to ask them to proofread and edit their papers for them. Again, the odd student may have benefited from over-zealous editorial assistance from a well-meaning family member. However, the majority of students accessed what we would now perceive to be ethical editing assistance (i.e., help to find errors and recognize issues).

Here at Vappingo, we focus on helping students (and anyone else who orders our services) present their work in the best possible light. In many regards, it is helping to level the playing field.

We encounter many students who have performed fantastic studies in their areas of expertise. However, their writing skills are letting them down. This can particularly be the case with speakers of English as a second language.

Professional editors can help these individuals to ensure that their written papers don’t hold them back.

When is essay proofreading cheating?

See our guide to editing an essay for an in-depth overview of what editing involves. We also have a great article describing the differences between editing and proofreading .

However, we’ve summarized the main points below.

Essay editing or proofreading can be considered cheating if the editor does any of the following:

  • Performs any type of research on behalf of the student
  • Rewrites sections of text because they are factually incorrect
  • Answers the essay prompt on the student’s behalf
  • Significantly alters the content or meaning of the text
  • Changes the main ideas or arguments
  • Adds citations and references
  • Composes analysis for the student
  • Significantly restructures the whole essay

What does ethical essay proofreading involve?

Ethical online proofreading services involves the following:

  • Highlighting areas of the discussion that may require fact-checking
  • Commenting on any arguments that do not make sense in the context of the rest of the paper
  • Correcting spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors
  • Pointing out any material/language that isn’t appropriate; for instance, the use of slang terms or derogatory descriptions of the work of others
  • Identifying areas where the writing isn’t clear
  • Highlighting citation errors or lack of appropriate citation
  • Ensuring the paper is formatted in a professional and polished manner
  • Pointing out problems… but not solving them

The differences between ethical essay proofreading and cheating

Difference between proofreading and cheating

Is academic proofreading cheating? What the universities have to say

So, what do the universities have to say?

Most universities actively encourage students to ensure their papers are edited and proofread. But don’t just take our word on it. Here’s what the universities have to say:

“Third-party academic proofreaders are not expected to actively amend existing, or create new, content in draft work; instead, they should support the student by identifying errors and/or making suggestions relating to – but not creating – content. The University considers the role of the proofreader is more akin to that of a mentor rather than a content producer or editor of the work.” – University of Warwick

“A third party can be used to offer advice on: 3.1 spelling and punctuation; 3.2 formatting and sorting footnotes and endnotes for consistency and order; 3.3 ensuring the work follows the conventions of grammar and syntax in written English; 3.4 shortening long sentences and editing long paragraphs; 3.5 changing passives and impersonal usages into actives; 3.6 improving the position of tables and illustrations and the clarity, grammar, spelling, and punctuation of any text in or under tables and illustrations; and 3.7 ensuring consistency of page numbers, headers, and footers” (London School of Economics)

“Checking your writing before submitting it is an important part of the process. It can be challenging to proofread your own writing, and some people prefer to work with a proofreader. However, to avoid collusion, it is your responsibility to ensure that it is still your own work. Your responsibilities If you choose to work with a proofreader (either a professional or a friend), you will need to ensure that their suggestions don’t change your work so much that it’s no longer yours.” (Newcastle University)

“It is acknowledged that certain types of student texts are quite often submitted for academic proofreading to a third party, and that such assistance is at times actively recommended by supervisors. This is particularly the case for doctoral dissertations, which typically aim for publication standard in their presentation.” ( Lancaster University )

In fact, the London School of Economics has gone as far as to set up its own proofreading company ( Additional services ).

Your professors are probably using academic proofreading services themselves

Here is something many students don’t know:

Your professors will use editorial services. Reputable articles will not publish articles if they contain mistakes. For this reason, many authors choose to have their papers edited and proofread by professional editors. In fact, in some cases, it is a mandatory requirement for all submissions to be accompanied by a certificate of editing. See, for example, the Toho Journal of Medicine submission requirements. Vappingo currently provides a certificate of professional editing free of charge.

Around 70% of the orders for academic proofreading services we receive here at Vappingo are from PhD candidates and professors. There’s proof that academic proofreading is not cheating if ever you needed it.

How to avoid crossing the line between getting proofreading assistance and cheating

  • Make sure you read your university’s editing and academic proofreading policy in depth. Every university applies a different set of rules. Share these rules with your editor and ensure you operate within the realms of these laws at all times.
  • Include the name of the company that edited your paper in the acknowledgments section of any dissertation or thesis. Better still, request a certificate of editing. If the providing company refuses to provide documentation of this nature, it’s likely something’s amiss.
  • Ensure any proofreading or editing company you choose has significant experience with academic texts. General editors aren’t typically aware of the ethics associated with academic editing.
  • Inform your supervisors that you intend to have your essay proofread by professional academic proofreaders. They will be likely to offer you good advice on what you can and can’t do.
  • Retain responsibility for your own work at all times. Even if you have had your work edited by a professional, you should read through it yourself one final time to ensure there are no loitering errors or areas of misunderstanding.

Can I just ask a friend to help edit or proofread my essay?

Absolutely. If you have a friend or family member on hand who possesses a good working knowledge of written English and academic editing, it can be useful to elicit his or her help. However, you should bear in mind the following:

  • Some academic documents can be particularly lengthy, especially dissertations, manuscripts, and theses. Asking friends to proofread an extensive file places a significant burden on them.
  • You should avoid asking a student who is on the same course to proofread your essay. This could lead to misappropriation claims or version control issues that can potentially lead to academic misconduct.

A final word…

Academic editing and proofreading are not cheating, providing the editor adheres to basic ethical requirements. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that the proofreader is aware of the standards expected by the university and adheres to them at all times and for revising your own essay .

You own the essay or academic paper. It needs to be your work. As such, you need to check each correction—however minor—and ensure it reflects your voice, intended meaning, and own research.

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When does proofreading become plagiarism?

Experts say rules are too unclear in light of rise of online commercial checking services.

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cheating essay proofread

Getting someone else to write an essay is clearly cheating, but what if a student has another person proofread their work? Pointing out a missed comma seems fairly innocent, but what if the proofreader rewrote whole sentences or even paragraphs? And what if the student had paid them to do so?

Who is permitted to proofread and revise an essay is a tricky subject, one made even more so since the proliferation of proofreading services that charge for their work available over the internet.

In 2011, the scandal over alleged plagiarism by and excessive assistance given to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi during his doctoral studies at the London School of Economics thrust the issue into the spotlight in the UK.

Since then, many universities in the country have developed guidelines on the subject. However, experts now warn that a lack of uniformity across the sector risks unfairly penalising students or creating loopholes that allow cheaters to escape sanction. Guidelines vary by institution, but all insist that a student must unambiguously be the author of work they present as their own.

The University of Leeds ’ policy says responsibility for proofreading work before submission rests with the individual student. Although students are permitted to “peer-review”, the reviewer may only comment on the work, not directly amend it.

The University of Reading encourages students to seek guidance from their school, but adds that any third-party editing must be acknowledged in a written statement. Coventry University ’s regulations do not bar proofreaders, but do state that the use of one must “not compromise the authorship of the submitted work”.

Michael Draper, dean of regulations and student cases at Swansea University and director of the Swansea Academy for Inclusivity and Learner Success, said the issue has gone under the radar for some time.

“The key question is: at what point do changes made by a proofreader become so extensive that the work can no longer be fairly said to be that of the student, so as to impact on the assessment of learning outcomes?” he said.

Some assessments award marks for accurate spelling and grammar, so even proofreading to this extent can be a problem, although this is normally acceptable. Proofing code formulae and equations in science and mathematics subjects is a particular issue, Professor Draper said.

Thomas Lancaster, a senior teaching fellow at Imperial College London , said the use of proofreaders was “a grey area in higher education right now”, noting that the main concern in assessment was whether the tutor was marking the work of the student, not that of a third party.

“There are many legitimate proofreaders out there, but also a lot that are fronts for contract cheating services. The way they advertise, it’s hard for students to know the difference,” he said.

This is backed up by the Quality Assurance Agency’s guidelines on cheating, which warn that “such services can be a gateway to full-scale contract cheating”.

Allowing the use of these services also raised a question of fairness, said Professor Draper, because students who could afford to pay for such assistance would enjoy an advantage over those who could not. “Any policy must be made having regard to that context,” he said.

Adam Harvey, chief executive of Proofed, a proofreading business, said he supported – and was looking to develop – a uniform set of proofreading and editing guidelines across universities. This “will ensure that students don’t inadvertently plagiarise. It will also provide transparency in the academic process and allow proofreading companies to standardise their service according to an agreed-upon policy,” he said.

For Irene Glendinning, academic manager for student experience at Coventry, proofreading is “a legitimate stage in the process of writing. It is difficult for an author to objectively proofread their own work, for many reasons.

“I was surprised to hear that proofreading is not allowed in some HEIs. This seems to be a very excessive response to what should be a manageable issue,” she said.

“Employing someone else – paid or otherwise – to help find the typos and point out areas that need attention is nothing to do with plagiarism,” she said. “The proofreader needs to be constrained by the guidelines in what they are permitted to change, and they need to be competent and proficient, ideally trained and professional in their approach, with some endorsement or certification.”

Guidelines should specify that if assessed work is proofread, the student must keep copies of their originals to demonstrate exactly what changes have been made by the proofreader, said Dr Glendinning, to counter any fears of unfair assistance.

Dr Lancaster agreed. “The student should have a copy of their work before and after proofreading and should acknowledge the use of a proofreader on their submission,” he said. “If there are any factual changes or the argument the student has put forward has been rewritten, the proofreader has gone too far.”

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Print headline:  Just another pair of eyes, or a means to plagiarise?

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Personalized Writing Help When You Need it

Unintentional plagiarism, grammar mistakes, and uncited sources  can turn what you thought was a good paper into a poor one. When you’re writing a paper the last thing you want is for your message to get lost due to incorrect punctuation or confusing sentence structure. You know that the great ideas in your head would make for a standout paper, if only you could get them written clearly on the page. If this struggle sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

Great ideas may be an essential part of high-quality writing, but they’re not the only component. Excellent papers and essays clearly express strong ideas with good grammar, proper punctuation, spot-on spelling, and thorough, careful citations. While this may sound like a lot, your teachers and professors are grading you on your skills as both a writer and a researcher, which means your assignments will require an ethical and attentive approach. Luckily, there is no shortage of available tools to help you along your way.

You could use a plagiarism checker free, though, these tools often lack grammatical support. Given the high stakes and rigorous requirements, the aid of a plagiarism checker without the needed support of a grammar checker could mean the difference between an “A” paper and a “C” or even “D” paper.

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A Grammar Check for Peace of Mind

You know that grammar plays a significant role in your assignments. Not only does it factor into your overall grade, but without clear and precise language, your ideas can lose their impact or might even be misunderstood entirely. Still, with so many different parts of speech and rules to learn and apply, it’s not uncommon to get them mixed up and find yourself questioning your knowledge now and again:

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Why is grammar important? As long as others know what you mean, does it really matter if you use proper grammar? These are age-old questions, but the answers remain unchanged. Grammar is important for many reasons:

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Persistent use of the best grammar checker and spell checker you can find will help to shape up the style and substance of your composition. However, to ensure the integrity of your work and root out unintentional instances of academic dishonesty, you’ll also need to incorporate a subscription-based or free plagiarism checker for students.

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Many teachers and professors use a service to ensure that student papers are original and include properly formatted and sourced citations for all reference materials. For some, this may be a consistent element of their grading process, while others may utilize one only when they feel there is a reason to do so.

What Exactly Does a Plagiarism Checker Do?

If you’ve used an online plagiarism checker before, you may be familiar with the process that these tools employ. For those who have never used one, it can be helpful to understand how these tools work and what you should expect as a result of using one.

The most basic free tools will scan your paper and provide you with a percentage that indicates how much of your work is original. This feature can be useful to a point, as some instructors and institutions set a percentage for the amount of similar text that is considered acceptable. This policy does not mean that they are lenient about academic dishonesty but, instead, that they recognize that similar or even matching word choice is not always an indicator of copying.

However, some schools do not tolerate any form of incremental plagiarism, period. In these institutions, “check paper for plagiarism” is likely a standard action when grading all papers.

With a free plagiarism checker, the percentage of word-for-word plagiarism in your text may be the only feedback you receive. Moreover, some of these providers may wade in unethical waters, and offer essay writing services in conjunction with their checking services. This is why many students and teachers prefer subscription-based checkers that focus on integrity, such as the EasyBib writing tools.

With our premium tools, you get more than just supporting proof that your paper is original and in your own words. Your writing is scanned for potentially matching text and areas that needs your attention is highlighted. We’ll provide you with the source of the matching text so you can review it and decide how to proceed. If you agree that a citation is needed, our citation tools and resources will provide you with the information you need to help format and insert the new sources in your text as well as your works cited page.

How Does the EasyBib Plus Online Plagiarism Checker Work?

The EasyBib Plus writing tool provides an all-in-one spell check, grammar review, and plagiarism checker that not only helps you with the paper you’re writing now but enables you to gain new knowledge and improve your writing for the future, too.

Our essay checker searches online for phrases, sentences, or passages that are similar to those in your paper. If it returns matching text, this may indicate that you have passages that are missing citations.

Just as with many checkers, our tool will tell you how many instances of matching text it finds in your paper. Our plagiarism tool is designed to do more than most free tools, however.

When a portion of your paper is flagged for review, we provide you with the source that it matches. As with our online spell check tool, you have the power to review each area and choose how to proceed. If you decide to cite the flagged text, you can review the suggested source and access our citation tools to help create a proper citation and start building a bibliography for your paper. Or, you may determine that no citation is needed, in which case it’s simple to dismiss the suggestion and continue to the next section.

If you’re unsure about how to proceed, our library of resources can help you learn more and make an educated decision. In this way, you gain more than just the ability to correct your work; over time, you can learn how to avoid plagiarism altogether.

Reasons Your Teacher May Run Your Paper Through a Plagiarism Detector

As stated previously, your teachers and professors grade papers with a fixed process that includes “check paper for plagiarism” as a standard, across-the-board action. Others may check for plagiarism only when they feel there is cause to do so. There are a few red flags that may stand out to them while reviewing a paper that would lead to their running a plagiarism check, including:

Style/Voice:  Most teachers are familiar with the style and voice that you use in your writing. While most will hope that the feedback they provide when grading your work will help you to improve problem areas over time, a paper or essay that has a dramatically different style or voice than the work you’ve previously submitted can be a red flag.

Inconsistency:  Changes in the font, font size, formality, formatting, and more may indicate that portions of a paper have been copied and pasted. If these inconsistent passages are not presented as quotations or don’t include citations, this may further indicate to your teacher that there’s plagiarism in the paper.

Old References:  Part of a well-researched paper is verifying the legitimacy and relevance of your sources. While some older references may be acceptable depending on the topic, if all of your sources are outdated, it may lead your teacher to believe that you’ve recycled your own work or someone else’s.

Looking for a checker to try? With EasyBib Plus you get unlimited checks to give you peace of mind when turning in your papers!

What is Plagiarism?

If you’re looking for a free online plagiarism checker , you’re already aware that it’s not something you want to be found in your papers. However, you may still be wondering: what does plagiarism mean? It’s a reasonable question and one that merits exploring. After all, some of the actions and circumstances that fall within the plagiarism definition come as a surprise to those who only learn that they’ve committed them after it’s too late.

So what is plagiarism? To define plagiarism in the most basic sense, you might say that it is taking someone else’s ideas and words and passing them off as your own.

If your goal is avoiding plagiarism entirely, you’ll need to go beyond the basics to thoroughly define plagiarism, recognize it, and keep clear of it. Some examples of plagiarism that students find surprising include forgotten citations, poor paraphrasing, and re-submitting your own work in whole or in part for more than one assignment. This useful article provides more help in recognizing and understanding the different forms that academic dishonesty can take.

Of course, using your own words and ideas does not count as plagiarism, nor does using common knowledge . Basically, common knowledge is information that is well known by the average person. Examples of common knowledge:

  • there are 12 months in a year
  • the freezing point of Celsius is zero degrees
  • Socrates was a Greek philosopher

So should you only include your original thoughts and common knowledge in your papers? Of course not! Research-based assignments are meant to demonstrate your skills as a researcher, after all, as well as your ability to build upon the work of others to formulate new ideas. To avoid accidentally committing an act that falls within the plagiarism definition when you’re using another person’s words or ideas, though, you need to give them proper credit. This means you’ll need to clearly identify direct quotations or properly paraphrase them when including them in your paper.

Regardless of your approach, you’ll also need to cite your sources according to the style your professor specifies. Generally, you will use MLA format for the arts and humanities and APA format for the sciences, but it’s always best to check with your instructor when you’re unsure.

If you know what style to use but still aren’t sure how to create your citations, don’t fret! Our library of resources includes free guides to help you learn about various styles so you can properly structure and place them. And our premium tools not only help you check grammar, spelling, and originality in your papers, but subscribers also enjoy access to our citation creation tools!

What are the Different Types of Plagiarism?

In addition to the question “what is plagiarism,” you may also be wondering, “why do students plagiarize?” While some students do intentionally plagiarize because they believe they can pass off someone else’s work as their own to avoid spending time on their assignments, many others do so accidentally. They may not understand how broad the plagiarism definition is or they haven’t learned how to research and cite their sources properly. That is why it is vital to recognize plagiarism in all of its forms if you wish to ensure the integrity of your work.

Examples of plagiarism & How to prevent it

Direct plagiarism:

Intentionally copying another person’s work without including a citation that gives credit to the source. When most students are asked to identify potential plagiarism examples and behaviors, this direct and deliberate act is what they think of first.

  • Prevention: If you use an idea or quote from another source, cite it in the text. Make it clear that it was not your own words. 

Incremental plagiarism:

Copying parts of another person’s work, such as phrases, sentences, or paragraphs without crediting the source. When deciding which tools to use to check a paper for plagiarism , instructors often seek out those that will identify incremental forms as well as instances of direct copying and similar phrasing.

  • Prevention : Decide to either directly quote the phrases or sentences you want to use, or write a good paraphrase. In both cases, be sure to add a citation. Using a plagiarism checker could also help you identify problematic passages.

Self-plagiarism:

Academic self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits the same paper or parts of a paper for more than one assignment. When your instructors are grading your papers, they’re assessing your research and writing skills in the present. When you submit work that you completed in the past, they are both unable to evaluate your current skills and unaware that you haven’t completed the assignment.

  • Prevention: Write a new paper for each assignment you’re assigned. If you feel strongly that your past work could enhance your new paper, speak to your instructor and ask for permission first.

Misleading citations:

Including a citation for a quote or idea that misrepresents the source material. This can occur if a student does not understand the reference they are citing; if a student includes a citation for a disreputable source; or the source material simply does not align with the idea or argument that the student has attributed to it.

  • Prevention: Carefully review your assignment to understand it. As you research, take the time to evaluate each source notes . Remember, it’s better to have quality citations over an abundance of citations.

Invented sources:

If a reference in a student’s bibliography is found not to exist, it is considered an invented source. This may occur if a student couldn’t find a reputable source to back their argument, or if they needed to include additional references to meet the requirements of the assignment and chose to take an unethical shortcut rather than completing the required amount of research. No matter the reason, this behavior ultimately hurts them in the long run. Not only will they fail to gain the experience they need to conduct research in the future properly, but they’ll also experience significant consequences if they’re caught.

  • Prevention: Set aside time to do proper research so you can find enough sources. Start creating a list of sources as you’re researching and take good notes. This will help you keep track of your sources so none are forgotten. If you do end up forgetting where a quote came from, a paper checker could help you pinpoint the original source. 

Patchwriting/Spinning:

Patchwriting is often confused with paraphrasing, but there’s a significant difference. When you paraphrase, you demonstrate that you understand the topic well enough to restate it in your own words. When you patchwrite or spin, it is more akin to a word-swapping game; there’s no need to understand the subject, merely to have access to a thesaurus so you can substitute enough synonyms to mask the source material. This can be intentional, but it may also be a result of having a poor understanding of how to paraphrase.

  • Prevention: Using your own words, write down the key points of the phrase or idea, and put them together in a sentence. Be sure to include a citation as well. 

A good way to test if you’re patchwriting or paraphrasing is to remove your sources from view. If you can write about what you’ve read without looking at the source material, you likely understand it well enough to paraphrase it. If you have to review the source material with each new sentence or consult a thesaurus while writing about it (except when you’re adding direct quotations), you may be spinning your sources instead of paraphrasing them.

Academic Integrity Policies and Statements

If you’re still uncertain about what counts as plagiarism, look for your school’s/ organization’s policies on academic integrity and plagiarism. The policies of academic institutions usually cover what is considered plagiarism, the consequences of committing it, and how to avoid it. One great example is Purdue University’s Academic Integrity statement .

What are the Consequences of Plagiarism?

No matter the setting, plagiarism is not taken lightly, and the consequences can be significant. For a good reason, too! Whether in an academic or professional setting, the plagiarism consequences reflect the seriousness of the act, which is ultimately a form of theft that hurts everyone involved.

Just as with the theft of a tangible object, there can be legal punishments for plagiarism. It is, after all, a form of copyright infringement in many instances. A quick search for plagiarism articles will reveal that professional instances of intellectual theft have resulted in civil lawsuits and can even be criminally prosecuted under rare circumstances. In addition to the possible legal consequences, professionals may lose their jobs or have to start over in a new field after their acts of fraud are uncovered.

As a student, you’re likely to wonder what happens if you plagiarize in college or high school. While there will almost always be consequences for this behavior, there is no one-size-fits-all plagiarism sentence. Depending on the circumstances, academic dishonesty could result in outcomes such as:

  • You might get a zero for the assignment in which the infringement occurred.
  • You may receive a failing grade for the class. If it is a required course, this could leave you without enough credits to move on to the next level until you can repeat it and, in some instances, postpone graduation.
  • You may be expelled from your school or university.

The academic dishonesty may be noted on your transcript, which can lead to you not getting into your preferred college, graduate school, or Ph.D. program in the future.

Nobody wants to be known as a fraud or to have a reputation for dishonesty follow them through their career. And, given the consequences that can extend beyond just their reputation, it’s no wonder that professional and academic writers who wish to avoid them take the time to understand the complete definition of plagiarism and run their work through a plagiarism checker before sending it out into the world.

Even the vigilant can fall prey to inferior tools, unfortunately. Before selecting a plagiarism checker, you should understand how they work and what they can (and cannot) detect.

How We Check for Plagiarism

When exploring how to check for plagiarism, most students and professionals conclude that including a checking tool in their revision process is not only helpful but necessary. When you consider the Herculean task of checking each line of your paper against the text of each of your resources, the benefits of a checker are clear. Moreover, this manual approach would only alert you to matching text in the sources you’re aware of, after all, and leaves the sources you haven’t reviewed untouched.

But, hang on. Why would sources you haven’t reviewed factor into your review? The answer to this lies in the plagiarism definition you learned above. What is plagiarism? It’s presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, intentionally or otherwise. It is not uncommon to uncover an idea while you’re researching a topic and later misremember it as your own. This might even occur years after you originally came across it.

You might wonder: how can plagiarism be avoided if you have to account for the source of every thought you include in your work? A few exceptions minimize the scope of this. Common knowledge about your topic does not need to be supported by a citation, nor does knowledge that you gained through your personal experience. Using a subscription-based or free plagiarism checker will help you locate any passages that may fall into these categories so you can review them and decide for yourself whether a citation is needed.

EasyBib Plus writing tools provide easy, convenient, and reliable support to help you find potentially missed citations and can help you improve your paper into a high-quality paper with integrity. Simply upload your paper, select the checker, then sit back and relax as the site scans your document. In mere moments, we’ll search the web for passages of similar text and highlight duplicate content for your review.

Regardless of the tools you use to help you revise and polish your work, it’s ultimately your responsibility to ensure that you’re writing and submitting ethical work. That’s why our tools go beyond the basics and require your participation. The tool never automatically makes changes to your paper, but only flags sections that may need your attention and provides you with the matching source so you can to make an educated decision.

If you find that a citation is needed, our citation tools can help you create properly formatted citations and develop a complete bibliography. And, if you review the passage and determine that the match is coincidental, you can dismiss the alert and move on to the next.

Seamless Citation Creation

Professional writers and students alike can find creating citations incredibly confusing. Nevertheless, they are an integral part of a well-written and researched paper and a requirement in almost all academic settings. But, have you ever wondered why they are so important? Citations really do have a purpose—other than driving us crazy— that make it necessary always to cite our sources.

We cite our sources for a few important reasons:

We need to give credit where credit is due. When you use a quote from someone else’s work, you need to give credit for using their words and ideas. Research is often based on the works and ideas of others. However, to include the words and ideas of another without giving them proper credit is to plagiarize, even if the act was unintentional.

In addition, showing that you’ve done proper research by including in text & parenthetical citations and a comprehensive list of sources to back up your arguments gives your work a layer of credibility that can help you earn the trust of your reader or teacher.

Readers can find the sources you used.  When you’re writing high school or undergraduate papers, your only readers may be your instructors and peers. However, including citations at every level of writing helps to ensure that anyone who reads your work can access your sources to check their accuracy, learn more about your topic, and further their own research.

Sources can take your research and learning to the next level, too. When you are conducting research on a topic, checking the works cited or annotated bibliographies prepared by your sources can lead you down new avenues in your research to further develop your ideas and help you write your papers.

Correctly utilizing citations gives strength to your thoughts and opinions. Understanding the value of citations does not, unfortunately, make them any easier to create. We know how confusing it can be, but don’t throw in the towel on learning how to cite websites in MLA , create your APA citation website references, or format your works cited —this is where we come in!

While a free online plagiarism detector may tell you how much of your work is unoriginal and may even identify the passages that meet their plagiarize definition, a premium EasyBib Plus plagiarism checker account also gives you access to our powerful citation resources and generator so you can:

Scan your papers with the plagiarism tool to check for plagiarism-free work before you submit.

Review flagged passages to determine if they meet the plagiarism definition and create unlimited citations in APA format and MLA format for anything fitting the plagiarism meaning. Need more styles ? Check out our regular citation generator for thousands of choices and free resources to help you learn how to create an APA parenthetical citation , APA book citation , APA works cited , and so much more!

Build a full bibliography for your paper right along with your parenthetical or in-text citations, which can save you hours of work along the way compared to manually creating and formatting them.

How Else Do We Help You Improve Your Paper?

The EasyBib Plus plagiarism detector helps you check your content or paper for text that may be missing a citation—which may fall within the definition of plagiarism—to help ensure you don’t accidentally plagiarize. It also includes grammar check and spelling check tools to help identify errors and suggest grammatical tweaks that could help to elevate the level of your writing.

Running a plagiarism check couldn’t be easier! Just upload your paper to the online proofreader, and in a few moments we’ll have your writing and citing suggestions. And, there’s no need to worry about your paper after it’s been scanned.

Run a Grammar and Spell Check for Free!

There’s no denying that your schoolwork can be challenging at times, and your assignments can lead to some late nights even when you’ve started them early. The last thing you want is to submit assignments that don’t reflect your best effort, but it can occasionally be quite the juggling act to get everything done on time.

Why not let our plagiarism checker free up space on your calendar by helping you revise your papers quickly and efficiently? The EasyBib Plus paper checker is your one-stop shop to check for plagiarism, create citations, spot spelling mistakes, and receive feedback on your grammar and style.

When you proofread and do a manual spelling check on work that you’ve written, you’re more likely to overlook mistakes. This is even more likely if you’re pressed for time or trying to complete several different assignments at once. There are tricks to help minimize this, such as reading your work aloud to identify poor grammar or reading each sentence backward to find spelling errors. When time is of the essence, though, these solutions aren’t the most convenient or useful options. That’s why many students seek the assistance of online tools that will run a grammar and plagiarism check on their work.

Are you asking yourself, “ How do I check my grammar online ?” We’ve got the perfect checker for you! Our advanced tools help you find and correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. Our targeted feedback and free writing and citing resources help you learn as you go to improve your writing over time.

The best part? You can use our grammar and writing tools any time of the day, any day of the year for! Looking to try it? Just upload or copy and paste your text into our online proofreader for a free grammar check with up to 5 suggestions, or sign up for EasyBib Plus today! EasyBib Plus gives you use of the plagiarism checker and unlimited access to suggestions that can help improve your spelling, sentence structure, punctuation, writing style, and grammar.

Published February 3, 2019. Updated April 9, 2020.

Written and edited by Michele Kirschenbaum and Melissa DeVrieze Meyer . Michele is a school library media specialist and the in-house librarian at EasyBib. You can find her here on Twitter. Melissa is a professional writer and editor based in New Jersey. She writes for academic brands and independent publishers about writing, grammar, and literature, and creates study and curriculum materials for ESL learners. You can find her on Twitter .

Visit our EasyBib Twitter feed to discover more citing tips, fun grammar facts, and the latest product updates.

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Essays About Cheating: Top 5 Examples and 9 Writing Prompts

Essays about cheating show the value of honesty, see our top picks for examples and prompts you can use in writing.

In the US, 95% of high school students admitted to participating in some form of academic cheating . This includes exams and plagiarism. However, cheating doesn’t only occur in schools. It’s also prevalent in couples. Psychologists say that 50% of divorce cases in the country are because of infidelity . Other forms of cheating exist, such as cheating on a diet, a business deal, etc.

Because cheating is an intriguing subject, many want to read about it. However, to write essays about cheating appropriately, you must first pick a subtopic you’re comfortable discussing. Therefore, we have selected five simple but exemplary pieces you can read to get inspiration for writing your paper.

See below our round-up of top example essays about cheating.

1. Long Essay On Cheating In School By Prasanna

2. the reality of cheating in college essay by writer kip, 3. why cheating is wrong by bernadette mcbride, 4. what counts as cheating in a relationship by anonymous on gradesfixer, 5. emotional cheating by anonymous on papersowl, 1. types of cheating, 2. i was cheated on, 3. is cheating a mistake or choice, 4. tax evasion and cheating , 5. when i cheated, 6. cheating in american schools and universities, 7. review a famous book or film about cheating, 8. a famous cheating quote, 9. cause and effects of cheating.

“Cheating is a false representation of the child’s ability which he may not be able to give without cheating. It is unfair to everyone involved as it deprives the true one of the chance to come on the top.”

Prasanna begins the essay by defining cheating in schools and then incorporates how this unethical behavior occurs in reality. She further delves into the argument that cheating is not learning but an addiction that can result in students losing self-confidence, sanity, and integrity. 

Apart from showing the common causes and harmful effects of cheating on students, Prasanna also adds parents’ and teachers’ critical roles in helping students in their studies to keep them from cheating.

“It’s human nature to want to win, and some of us will go against the rules to do so. It can be harmless, but in many cases, it is annoying, or even hurtful.”

Kip defines cheating as human nature and focuses his essay on individuals who are hell-bent on wanting to win in online games. Unfortunately, these players’ desire to be on top is all-consuming, and they’re willing to go against the rules and disregard their integrity.

He talks about his experiences of being cheated in a game called AoE. He also incorporates the effects of these instances on newbies. These cheaters will humiliate, dishearten, and traumatize beginners who only want to have fun.

Check out these essays about cooperation .

“A cheater is more than likely lying to themselves more than to the people around them. A person can only go so far before their lies catch up to them, begin to accumulate, and start to penalize you.”

Mcbride dedicates her essay to answering why cheating is wrong, no matter the circumstance. She points out that there will always be a definite punishment for cheaters, whether they get caught. Mcbride believes that students who cheat, copy, and have someone else do their work are lazy and irresponsible. These students will never gain knowledge.

However, she also acknowledges that some cheaters are desperate, while some don’t realize the repercussions of their behaviors. At the end of the essay, she admits to cheating but says she’s no longer part of that vicious cycle, promising she has already realized her mistakes and doesn’t want to cheat again.

“Keep in mind that relationships are not based on logic, but are influenced by our emotions.”

The author explains how it’s challenging to define cheating in a relationship. It’s because every person has varying views on the topic. What others consider an affair may be acceptable to some. This includes the partners’ interaction with others while also analyzing the individual’s personality, such as flirting, sleeping in the same bed, and spending time with folks.

The essay further explains experts’ opinions on why men and women cheat and how partners heal and rebuild their trust. Finally, examples of different forms of cheating are discussed in the piece to give the readers more information on the subject. 

“…emotional cheating can be described as a desire to engage in another relationship without physically leaving his or her primary relationship.”

There’s an ongoing debate about whether emotional cheating should be labeled as such. The essay digs into the causes of emotional cheating to answer this issue. These reasons include lack of attention to each other, shortage of affectionate gestures, and misunderstandings or absence of proper communication. 

All of these may lead to the partner comparing their relationship to others. Soon, they fall out of love and fail to maintain boundaries, leading to insensitivity and selfishness. When a person in a relationship feels any of these, it can be a reason to look for someone else who can value them and their feelings.

9 Helpful Prompts in Writing Essays About Cheating

Here are some cheating subtopics you can focus your essay on:

Essays About Cheating: Types of cheating

Some types of cheating include deception, fabrication, bribery, impersonation, sabotage, and professional misconduct. Explain their definitions and have examples to make it easier for readers to understand.

You can use this prompt even if you don’t have any personal experience of being cheated on. You can instead relay events from a close friend or relative. First, narrate what happened and why. Then add what the person did to move on from the situation and how it affected them. Finally, incorporate lessons they’ve learned.

While this topic is still discussed by many, for you, is cheating a redeemable mistake? Or is it a choice with consequences? Express your opinion on this matter. Gather reliable evidence to support your claims, such as studies and research findings, to increase your essay’s credibility.

Tax evasion is a crime with severe penalties. Explain what it is and its punishments through a famous tax evasion case your readers can immediately recognize. For example, you can use Al Capone and his 11-year imprisonment and $215,000 back taxes . Talk through why he was charged with such and add your opinion. Ensure you have adequate and reliable sources to back up your claims.

Start with a  5 paragraph essay  to better organize your points.

Some say everyone will cheat at some point in their life. Talk about the time you cheated – it can be at a school exam, during work, or while on a diet. Put the perspective that made you think cheating was reasonable. Did you feel guilt? What did you do after, and did you cheat again? Answer these questions in your essay for an engaging and thrilling piece of writing.

Since academic cheating is notorious in America, use this topic for your essay. Find out which areas have high rates of academic cheating. What are their penalties? Why is cheating widespread? Include any measures the academe put in place.

Cheating is a frequent cause of conflict on small and big screens. Watch a film or read a story and write a review. Briefly summarize the plot, critique the characters, and add your realizations after finishing the piece. 

Goodreads has a list of books related to cheating. Currently, Thoughtless by S.C. Stephens has the highest rating.

Use this as an opportunity to write a unique essay by explaining the quote based on your understanding. It can be quotes from famous personalities or something that resonates with you and your experiences.

Since cheating’s cause and effect is a standard prompt, center your essay on an area unrelated to academics or relationships. For instance, write about cheating on your diet or cheating yourself of the opportunities life presents you.

Create a top-notch essay with excellent grammar. See our list of the best grammar checkers.

cheating essay proofread

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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GPT Essay Checker for Students

How to Interpret the Result of AI Detection

To use our GPT checker, you won’t need to do any preparation work!

Take the 3 steps:

  • Copy and paste the text you want to be analyzed,
  • Click the button,
  • Follow the prompts to interpret the result.

Our AI detector doesn’t give a definitive answer. It’s only a free beta test that will be improved later. For now, it provides a preliminary conclusion and analyzes the provided text, implementing the color-coding system that you can see above the analysis.

It is you who decides whether the text is written by a human or AI:

  • Your text was likely generated by an AI if it is mostly red with some orange words. This means that the word choice of the whole document is nowhere near unique or unpredictable.
  • Your text looks unique and human-made if our GPT essay checker adds plenty of orange, green, and blue to the color palette.
  • 🔮 The Tool’s Benefits

🤖 Will AI Replace Human Writers?

✅ ai in essay writing.

  • 🕵 How do GPT checkers work?

🔗 References

🔮 gpt checker for essays: 5 key benefits.

People have yet to learn where AI and machine learning are taking us, but it has already caused many problems in the education system. This AI essay detector can resolve some of them, at least as of the moment.

There are 5 key benefits of the above GPT checker for essays and other academic writing projects.

Elon Musk, one of Chat GPT creators, said that it was “scary good” and that humanity is approaching the creation of “dangerously strong AI.”

In an interview , Bill Gates commented on the program: “It gives a glimpse of what is to come. I am impressed with this whole approach and the rate of innovation.” And these words give us goosebumps.

Over the first week of its functioning, the program exceeded 1 million users . Therefore, developers are interested in monetizing it, and launching a paid Beta-version won’t take long.

We prefer not to throw out compliments to the chatbot and instead let you check for yourself . It is a chat with AI. The best way to start is to ask a question. It is free so far (still under research), so you can ask as many questions as you please.

We should care about AI-generated content because, in a decade, it will be an everyday reality. Even more so, it is a hot-button issue now. For now, GPT 3 can’t replace human writers. However, AI essay detection has already become an issue for teachers.

You can try asking ChatGPT to write an essay for you. But we do not recommend pass it off as written by you. Not only because it's unethical (although it is). The fact is that ChatGPT has a number of drawbacks that you need to consider before using it.

Chat GPT in Essay Writing – the Shortcomings

  • The tool doesn’t know anything about what happened after 2021. Novel history is not its strong side. Sometimes it needs to be corrected about earlier events. For instance, request information about Heathrow Terminal 1 . The program will tell you it is functioning, although it has been closed since 2015.
  • The reliability of answers is questionable. AI takes information from the web which abounds in fake news, bias, and conspiracy theories.
  • References also need to be checked. The links that the tool generates are sometimes incorrect, and sometimes even fake.
  • Two AI generated essays on the same topic can be very similar. Although a plagiarism checker will likely consider the texts original, your teacher will easily see the same structure and arguments.
  • Chat GPT essay detectors are being actively developed now. Traditional plagiarism checkers are not good at finding texts made by ChatGPT. But this does not mean that an AI-generated piece cannot be detected at all.

🕵 How Do GPT Checkers Work?

An AI-generated text is too predictable. Its creation is based on the word frequency in each particular case.

Thus, its strong side (being life-like) makes it easily discernible for ChatGPT detectors.

Once again, conventional anti-plagiarism essay checkers won’t work there merely because this writing features originality. Meanwhile, it will be too similar to hundreds of other texts covering the same topic.

Here’s an everyday example. Two people give birth to a baby. When kids become adults, they are very much like their parents. But can we tell this particular human is a child of the other two humans? No, if we cannot make a genetic test. This GPT essay checker is a paternity test for written content.

❓ GPT Essay Checker FAQ

Updated: Oct 25th, 2023

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This page contains a free online GPT checker for essays and other academic writing projects. Being based on the brand-new technology, this AI essay detector is much more effective than traditional plagiarism checkers. With this AI checker, you’ll easily find out if an academic writing piece was written by a human or a chatbot. We provide a comprehensive guide on how to interpret the results of analysis. It is up to you to draw your own conclusions.

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Guest Essay

Scientists Just Gave Humanity an Overdue Reality Check. The World Will Be Better for It.

A crowded freeway in Los Angeles against the setting sun.

By Stephen Lezak

Mr. Lezak is a researcher at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford who studies the politics of climate change.

The world’s leading institution on geology declined a proposal on Wednesday to confirm that the planet has entered a new geologic epoch , doubling down on its bombshell announcement earlier this month. The notion that we’re in the “Anthropocene” — the proposed name for a geologic period defined by extensive human disturbance — has become a common theme in environmental circles for the last 15 years. To many proponents, the term is an essential vindication, the planetary equivalent of a long-sought diagnosis of a mysterious illness. But geologists weren’t convinced.

The international geology commission’s decision this week to uphold its vote of 12 to 4 may seem confusing, since by some measures humans have already become the dominant geologic force on the earth’s surface. But setting the science aside for a moment, there’s a reason to celebrate, because the politics behind the Anthropocene label were rotten to begin with.

For starters, the word Anthropocene problematically implies that humans as a species are responsible for the sorry state of the earth’s environments. While technically true, only a fraction of humanity, driven by greed and rapacious capitalism, is responsible for burning through the planet’s resources at an unsustainable rate. Billions of humans still lead lives with relatively modest environmental footprints, yet the terminology of the Anthropocene wrongly lays blame at their feet. Responding to the vote, a group of outside scientists wisely noted in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution that “our impacts have less to do with being human and more to do with ways of being human.”

What’s more, inaugurating a new geologic epoch is an unacceptable act of defeatism. Geologic epochs are not fleeting moments. The shortest one, the Holocene — the one we live in — is 11,700 years long and counting. The idea that we are entering a new epoch defined by human-caused environmental disaster implies that we won’t be getting out of this mess anytime soon. In that way, the Anthropocene forecloses on the possibility that the geologic future might be better than the present.

By placing Homo sapiens center stage, the Anthropocene also deepens a stark and inaccurate distinction between humanity and the planet that sustains us. The idea of “nature” as something separate from humankind is a figment of the Western imagination. We should be wary of language that further separates us from the broader constellation of life to which we belong.

Before the recent vote, the Anthropocene epoch had cleared several key hurdles on the path to scientific consensus. The International Commission on Stratigraphy, the global authority on demarcating the planet’s history, established a dedicated working group in 2009. Ten years later, the group formally recommended adopting the new epoch. But the proposal still had to be approved by a matryoshka doll of committees within the commission and its parent body, the International Union of Geological Sciences.

By all accounts, the process leading up to the vote was highly contentious. After the initial vote was held, scientists in the minority called for it to be annulled , citing procedural issues. This week, the committee’s parent authority stepped in to uphold the results.

Ultimately, what scuttled the proposal was disagreement about where to mark the end of the Holocene. The Anthropocene Working Group had settled on 1952, the year that airborne plutonium residue from testing hydrogen bombs fell across broad stretches of the planet. That ash, scientists reasoned, would leave a sedimentary signature akin to the boundaries that mark ancient geologic transitions. But scientists at the stratigraphy commission objected — what about the dawn of agriculture or the Industrial Revolution? After all, the human footprint on the planet long predates the atomic age.

“It’s very obvious to me that human activity started long before 1952,” Phil Gibbard, a founding member of the Anthropocene Working Group who is the secretary-general of the commission, said when we spoke on Thursday. “It just didn’t make sense to draw a rigid boundary within my lifetime.”

In recent years, philosophers have bandied about alternative names: the Capitalocene , the Plantationocene and even the Ravencene , a reference to the raven who figures widely in North Pacific Indigenous mythology as a trickster figure, reminding humans to be humble amid our destructive capacity. For my part, I’m partial to “post-Holocene,” an admission that the world is vastly different than it was 10,000 years ago, but that we can’t possibly predict — or name — what it might look like in another 10,000 years.

In the end, it might be too late to find a better term. The “Anthropocene” has already entered the popular lexicon, from the cover of The Economist to the title of a Grimes album. The scientists who coined the term do not have the power to extinguish it.

Whatever we choose to call these troubled times, what matters most is that we keep an open mind about what the future holds and maintain an appreciation for the complexity of the issues we face. The scars humanity leaves upon the earth are much too fraught to be represented with a single line drawn across time.

Looking ahead, we should follow the geologists’ lead and keep a healthy skepticism of the A-word. After all, nothing is more hubristic than reckless tyrants who names the world after themselves — think Stalingrad, Constantinople or Alexandria.

Geologists will continue to disagree over what to call the present era. The rest of us must continue the difficult politics of caring for a planet that can (still) support a panoply of life.

Stephen Lezak is a researcher at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford who studies the politics of climate change.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

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Frequently asked questions

Our Essay Checker can detect most grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. That said, we can’t guarantee 100% accuracy. The Essay Checker performs especially well on academic texts, but it can only check US English at the moment. If you want your document edited in other languages or with 100% accuracy, we recommend our Proofreading & Editing service .

You can only upload .docx (Word) files to the Essay Checker.

Absolutely! The Essay Checker is particularly useful for non-native English speakers, as it can detect mistakes that may have gone unnoticed.

Yes—you’re in control. Every change suggested by the Essay Checker is indicated as a tracked change in Word. You can decide which changes to accept or reject in your document; you can also accept all of the changes with just one click.

The cost is $9.95 for unlimited documents for 1 month, regardless of the length of your document(s).

The exact time depends on the length of your document, but, in most cases, the proofreading will be completed within a maximum of 10 minutes.

If you format your list of citations as a reference list in Word, the Essay Checker will make no changes. However, even if it does make changes to your references, you can easily select the entire list and simply undo the changes.

No. You can, however, get a free report that tells you exactly how many and what kinds of mistakes there are in your document.

The editor uses ‘Track Changes’ in Word when editing your thesis.

Don’t know how this works? Then read the following guide  in which we explain step by step how ‘Track Changes’ works.

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