Scope: What to Do if a User Asks You to Check for Plagiarism

Sometimes an author will ask us to check a paper for plagiarism. In this case, try to leave comments in areas of the document that sound like the author may have included content that is not wholly original and/or uncited. It's pretty easy to spot blatant plagiarism with shifts in voice or changes in formatting from copy/paste, but don't spend a ton of time trying to confirm whether every paragraph is plagiarized or not.

In your closing comments, politely let the user know that we are an editing service, not a plagiarism checker. Most users know we can't check for plagiarism word for word. You can advise the author to use a free plagiarism checker like http://plagiarisma.net/. 

Not sure what to say? You can copy/paste or tweak this response:

Thanks for choosing Kibin! While I’ve made comments on parts of your essay that appear to be plagiarized, please note that we are not a plagiarism checker service, we are an editing service (which means we change your original content for the better!). If you are worried about plagiarism, I suggest you use a free plagiarism checker like http://plagiarisma.net/.