If you truly understand what plagiarism is, then you don’t need a plagiarism detector. You don’t need to ask Turnitin. Because you are the one who knows best whether you intentionally plagiarized or not. "Unintentional plagiarism" only happens to those who don’t grasp the definition of plagiarism in the first place.

The element of intent in plagiarism lies, first, in the absence of any will to credit the original source. This person has no intention of respecting the work or ideas of others. They believe it’s acceptable to take from someone else without asking and without giving proper credit. But really, how hard is it to cite the source of an idea or data? In academia, we are never discredited for citing our sources!

Second, on a more malicious level, intent is manifested in the deliberate act of hiding the original source. Does that happen? Oh yes—frequently! If the first kind is just careless or dismissive, the second is willful, systematic, and often massive in scale.

How? By intentionally tweaking a few words or paraphrasing in such a way that readers won’t realize the text was stolen. From what I’ve seen, plagiarism detection tools like Turnitin can actually be used by these bad actors. They use the tool not to uphold integrity, but to measure whether their theft is “smooth enough.” If it still gets flagged, they tweak it again.

It’s within this second group that I begin to suspect: when someone needs a plagiarism detector for their own writing, you have to wonder—don’t they already know whether they plagiarized or not? Why are they still asking a machine?

Note:

To fully understand the context of this piece, you’ll need to read my book “Tanya Jawab Plagiarisme” (Questions and Answers on Plagiarism), so you don’t respond with comments like “But isn’t paraphrasing allowed?” Yes—plagiarism can be about both intention and technical citation. Both matter. This short essay specifically addresses those who intentionally fail to include references!

📖 Book link: https://www.maftuh.in/2020/01/tanya-jawab-plagiarisme.html

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