What is WriteCheck?
WriteCheck is an online plagiarism checking tool. It also has a grammar checking tool designed by ETS® and a Tutor service by Pearson®.
Before we dive further into WriteCheck, let’s talk about plagiarism and why you should care about it.
A lot of people believe plagiarism is simply duplicating the work or leveraging the ideas of an original work belonging to someone else. However, plagiarism is a serious offense and is considered academic and journalistic dishonesty and a breach of ethics.
In academic cycles, plagiarism can result in students obtaining zero marks for their research papers and essays.
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, to “plagiarize” means:
- To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own.
- To use (another’s production) without crediting the source.
- To commit literary theft.
- To present a new and original idea or product derived from an existing source.
Plagiarism is simply the failure or inability to cite your references properly.
Fair enough, the idea that ideas can be stolen is weird because “there’s nothing new under the sun”. But that’s the point exactly.
According to Lawmakers, it is possible to steal both words and ideas
“The expression of original ideas is considered intellectual property and is protected by copyright laws, just like original inventions. Almost all forms of expression fall under copyright protection as long as they are recorded in some way (such as a book or a computer file).”
All of the following are considered plagiarism:
- Turning in someone else’s work as your own.
- Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit.
- Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks.
- Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation.
- Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
- Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on “fair use” rules)
As serious an issue as plagiarism, plagiarism can be avoided by simply citing your research work. Yes! By simply referencing your source materials.
Citing and/or documenting your sources utilized in your research serves two purposes: it gives fitting credit to the authors of the resource materials utilized and allows those who are reading your work to reproduce your research and discover the sources you have listed as references. The three most popular citation formats are the Harvard, MLA, and APA Styles.
The failure, or inability to cite your references properly, is plagiarism.
Hence Plagiarism can be avoidable!
WriteCheck was developed by Turnitin. (Turnitin is an authenticity-checking tool that aids in the prevention of plagiarism). Turnitin is integrated into the Assignment assessment tool in all online classrooms and is managed by classroom support. This means that anytime you submit a research paper for grading, it will automatically be reviewed by Turnitin.
Here’s a preview of a Turnitin System in a classroom:
Turnitin developed WriteCheck to help students review their work before submitting it. WriteCheck helps students mature in their writing by checking for plagiarism and identifying grammatical errors.
WriteCheck was developed with the aid of instructors and researchers who saw the need for a presubmission plagiarism-checking tool for students with the same level of quality as Turnitin.
What’s great about WriteCheck is that it searches the same databases as Turnitin. But while Plagiarism found via Turnitin is added to the student’s papers database, in WriteCheck, they are not.
Sadly, earlier in 2020, I received an email that Turnitin was shutting down WriteCheck on the 1st of July 2020 (Read here: Turnitin.com FAQ).
The WriteCheck is no longer needed for students to get feedback on their assignments’ originality before submission, a message from Valerie Schreiner, Turnitin’s Chief Product Officer. So a decision was made to shut down the service, and as of (November 20, 2019), Turnitin stopped selling credits for WriteCheck.
WriteCheck stated the reason for this decision as follows;
“When we first introduced the WriteCheck service, we aimed to provide students feedback on text similarity—whether it was a need to add a citation, paraphrase, or incorporate more of their ideas—to help them understand how to write with integrity.
Since students now have easier access to writing drafts and accessing feedback using our flagship product Feedback Studio within their assignment workflow, WriteCheck is no longer needed.”
WriteCheck and Turnitin have accepted the reality of the world right now. Writing is beyond grammar and plagiarism, and research-assisting platforms like projecttopics.com have been designed to serve the needs of all academic and non-academic writers.
With the following free tools:
- Online plagiarism checking tool
- Online citation tool
- Online grammar checking tool
- Database of Journals
- Database of Student Aid Papers
- Paraphrasing tool
And a writer-for-hire service. Yes, the time of WriteCheck by Turnitin has ended, but there is hope. The emergence of free online plagiarism checking tools like ours helps improve your writing. We have the same mission as Turnitin and WriteCheck; to help students improve their writing ability and be the best research writers possible.
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