Plagiarism vs. Paraphrasing: What’s the Difference?

Suppose you are new to the writing profession. You need to know the difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing in this case.

Both of these terms are pretty confusing, and some of you might even think of them as the same thing. Still, there is a big difference between paraphrasing and plagiarizing content.

In this article, you will find out what plagiarism and paraphrasing are and their difference.

Plagiarism vs. Paraphrasing – All you need to know!

Even the most mature writers can get confused between the concept of paraphrasing and plagiarizing, so if you have no clue about these terms, then you need to read this section carefully.

Plagiarism: 

Plagiarism involves stealing or copying information from an already published source and presenting it as your own.

Plagiarism can occur not only if you are copying a complete document but also if you are copying small parts or even sentences from another source.

You must understand that the words, phrases, sentences that you are using in your content don’t belong to any other source.

Here an important thing you need to know about plagiarism is that it is not always deliberate. Yes, plagiarism can occur in your content even if you haven’t copied a single word from another source.

This is because today, hundreds of writers from all across the globe are publishing content on the same niche and topics.

So there is always a chance that your work can accidentally match another writer’s work on the same topic and even on an entirely different one. 

Paraphrasing:

Paraphrasing refers to the rewriting of content already published by another author.

Paraphrasing content means you present the same ideas, facts, and figures but in your own words and a different tone. But after paraphrasing content, make sure to check it with online plagiarism checkers to ensure there is no duplication.

Now that you know the definition of plagiarism and paraphrasing, let’s understand the main difference between paraphrasing and plagiarism to avoid any trouble caused by unethical duplication of content.

Related: Author vs Writer: What’s the difference?

Difference Between Plagiarism and Paraphrasing!

The main difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing is the similarity in your text to the original resource.

You can also call plagiarism the word-to-word copying of content from the source. In contrast, paraphrasing uses the same content but in an entirely different voice. 

The difference between the two Ps is that plagiarism is considered illegal and unethical in almost every part of the world.

In contrast, paraphrasing is allowed and is majorly being practiced today. It is hard to create new content every day, so paraphrasing is a decent way to rely on ideas presented by another author and rephrase them to make them their own. 

Another difference that you need to know about these two terms is that plagiarized content would never have attributions and citations to the source but paraphrased content would always refer to credits to the original author.

If you are paraphrasing content without citation, it will also result in plagiarism. 

How to check whether the content is plagiarized?

Finding the difference between plagiarism and paraphrased content manually is quite impossible.

So if you want to check whether a piece of content is duplicated or rephrased, we suggest you use an online plagiarism detector.

A plagiarism checker can scan the text and highlight all kinds of similarities. A plagiarism tool uses artificial intelligence and deep search algorithms to find deliberate and accidental plagiarism attempts in the content.

This is how you can easily check whether the content has plagiarism in it or not.

How to paraphrase accurately and remove plagiarism?

Paraphrasing requires proper skills and strategy. Not every writer can paraphrase content without committing plagiarism.

This is why we would suggest you paraphrase online. A paraphrasing tool can help you spin duplicate content into unique versions in less than seconds. The tool would analyze the original meaning of content and create a new version. 

You can check plagiarism in this spun version and find out if there are any similarities. Thanks to modern tech and tools, rewriting content and checking plagiarism has become easy. So instead of getting accused of duplication, we suggest you use the best tools!

Awesome one; I hope this article answered your question.

Share this Information.

Editor’s Recommendations:

ST Admin
ST Admin

Hello, I am ST Admin! For five years, I began actively assisting students in Europe, the United States, and Canada in their pursuit of college advice and scholarship prospects. I am the Administrator of www.schoolandtravel.com at present.

Articles: 922