Assignment checker
Check your assignment against the concrete requirements in your brief before you submit. Upload both documents and StudyRef compares them — word limit, formatting, required sections, citations against your reference list, source counts — and tells you what it found and what it could not check.
It does not predict a grade, and it does not check plagiarism. It checks the things a checklist can actually verify, so you can spend your attention on the things only you can.
One Word document (.docx), up to 10 MB and 5,000 words. StudyRef reads formatting from the file itself, which is why a paste box would not work here.
The instructions your lecturer gave you — brief, rubric or guidelines, as Word documents (.docx), up to 10 files. The requirements come from here, so the check is only as good as the brief you provide.
What the assignment checker looks at
Every check starts from your brief. StudyRef extracts the requirements the brief actually states, then compares each one against the document you uploaded — never against a convention it invented.
- Word count against the brief's limit
- Maximum, minimum or a range, read from your brief's own wording. The count comes from the same Word-compatible engine as StudyRef's word counter, and rules about what counts are applied only when your brief actually states them.
- Formatting your brief specifies
- Font family, font size, line spacing, margins, indentation, page size and orientation — compared against the document's real formatting, read from the .docx itself. Only what the brief asks for is checked; StudyRef invents no university convention.
- Required sections and components
- An abstract, an introduction, a conclusion, a reference list — where the brief names a part your submission must contain, StudyRef looks for it in the document's structure.
- Citations matched against your reference list
- Every in-text citation is matched to a reference entry and every entry back to a citation. A citation with no matching reference and a reference nothing cites are the two findings that cost marks most quietly.
- Source counts and recency
- “At least 6 sources” is counted from your reference list. “Sources from the last 5 years” is checked against the years your references themselves state — and where an entry has no readable year, that entry is reported as unverifiable rather than guessed.
- File format and naming rules
- Where the brief states how the file must be named or submitted, StudyRef checks what it can see.
What it deliberately does not do
Most tools on this search result promise a mark. This one refuses to, and the refusals below are product boundaries, not modesty.
- It does not predict your grade
- A mark reflects judgment about argument, evidence and writing that no requirement checklist can stand in for. StudyRef reports requirement findings; it never totals them into a score, a percentage or a readiness figure.
- It does not check plagiarism
- Plagiarism detection compares your text against other texts, which StudyRef does not have and does not fetch. Checking that citations match the reference list is about the integrity of your own document — a different job.
- It does not detect AI writing
- StudyRef makes no claim about who or what wrote the text, and no detector runs anywhere in this check.
- It does not judge argument or writing quality
- “Demonstrate critical analysis” is a requirement only a person can assess. When your brief asks for one of these, StudyRef reports it as outside what it can check mechanically — never as a pass, never as a fail.
- It does not certify compliance
- A clean run means the checked requirements were met, and says nothing about the requirements that could not be checked. The result says which is which, every time.
Requirements StudyRef can verify
The check is only as good as the brief. Here is what happens to four real kinds of requirement wording — including the kind StudyRef refuses to guess about.
“2,500 words maximum, excluding the reference list.”
Checked
A number, a direction and an exclusion rule — all three are read and applied.
“Use Calibri 11 with 1.5 line spacing.”
Checked
Compared against the fonts and spacing actually stored in your .docx.
“Include at least six peer-reviewed sources.”
Partly checked
The six is counted from your reference list. Peer-review status is not something a document can prove about its own sources, so that half is reported as unverified rather than assumed.
“Demonstrate critical engagement with the literature.”
Not checkable — and says so
A judgment for your marker. StudyRef says it cannot check this — it does not pretend to.
If your brief contains only requirements StudyRef cannot verify mechanically, the result says nothing was checked — never that everything passed.
How the check works
Upload both documents
Your assignment and the brief you were given, each as a Word document (.docx). StudyRef reads formatting straight from the file — fonts, spacing, margins — which is why a paste box could not do this job.
StudyRef extracts the requirements
The brief's own wording is parsed into concrete, checkable requirements. Each finding later quotes the wording it came from, so you can see why StudyRef believed something was required.
Each requirement is compared against your document
Word count, formatting evidence, document structure, and every citation matched against your reference list — all offline, all rule-based, no AI.
You get findings, not a verdict
Met, not met, check this yourself, or could not be checked — per requirement, with the reason. What could not be checked is stated, because silence should never read as approval.
Why this is not an AI grader
AI graders estimate what a marker might think of your work — a modelled opinion about quality that some students find useful, but not the job this tool does, and the two should not be confused.
A grade predictor answers
“What mark might this get?” — a modelled estimate of subjective judgment, which no tool can promise your marker will share.
StudyRef answers
“Does this document meet the concrete requirements in the brief?” — with evidence from your own files, requirement by requirement, and an honest “could not check” where evidence runs out.
Losing marks to a missed requirement — a word limit, a missing section, an uncited reference — is the most avoidable way to lose them. That is the problem this tool exists for.
Your assignment is not stored
An unsubmitted assignment is sensitive, and the free checker treats it that way. Your documents are held in memory long enough to run the comparison, the result is sent back to your browser, and nothing is written to a database or a file. No account is attached to the request, no copy is kept, and StudyRef's analytics receive only counts — never your text, your file names or your requirements.
The free anonymous check also makes no external request of any kind: no AI service, no publisher database, nothing. Your documents are compared against each other, on StudyRef's server, and that is the whole journey.
Assignment checker FAQ
- What does an assignment checker check?
- StudyRef's assignment checker reads your assignment brief, extracts the concrete requirements it states — word limits, formatting rules, required sections, source counts, citation expectations — and compares each one against your actual document. Every requirement comes back as met, not met, check this yourself, or could not be checked. It does not grade the work and it does not check plagiarism.
- Can StudyRef check my assignment before I submit it?
- Yes — that is the whole job. Upload the assignment and the brief as Word documents and StudyRef runs the comparison in one pass, free and without an account. It checks the things a checklist can verify, so you can spend your attention on the things only you can.
- Does StudyRef predict my grade?
- No. There is no score, no percentage and no predicted mark anywhere in the result, because a grade depends on judgment a requirements check cannot make. Tools that predict marks are modelling an opinion; StudyRef reports evidence about specific requirements and stops there.
- Does StudyRef check plagiarism?
- No. StudyRef does not compare your text against other texts, and the free check makes no external request at all. What it does check is the integrity of your own citations — whether every in-text citation matches a reference and every reference is cited — which is a different question from whether the text is original.
- Does StudyRef detect AI-written text?
- No. No AI detector runs in this check, and StudyRef makes no claim about how your text was written.
- Can StudyRef check formatting requirements?
- Yes, when your brief states them. Font, font size, line spacing, margins, indentation, page size and orientation are read from the .docx itself and compared against what the brief asks for. StudyRef never assumes a formatting convention your brief does not state.
- Can StudyRef check the word limit?
- Yes. The limit is read from your brief's wording — maximum, minimum or a range — and the count uses the same Word-compatible engine as StudyRef's free word count checker. Exclusions, such as the reference list not counting, are applied when the brief says so.
- Do I need my assignment brief?
- Yes. The requirements come from the brief — StudyRef checks your document against what your lecturer actually asked for, not against an invented standard. Without a brief there is nothing legitimate to check against. Upload it as a Word document; a rubric or guidelines document works too.
- Do I need an account?
- No. The free check runs without an account and shows you everything it found — every finding is in the first result, and nothing is computed and then hidden behind a sign-up.
- Does StudyRef store my assignment?
- The free anonymous check keeps nothing. Your assignment and brief are held in memory long enough to run the comparison, the result is sent back to your browser, and nothing is written to a database or a file. There is no account attached to the request and nothing to look up later.
- How many free checks do I get?
- One anonymous check per day — the same daily allowance a free account has. The free check uses no paid AI, so this is a fair-use limit, not a cost one. A free account keeps the daily check, removes the word ceiling on the free page, and keeps results with your work.
- What happens when StudyRef cannot verify a requirement?
- It says so, per requirement. A requirement that could not be read reliably, or that needs evidence the document does not carry, comes back as “could not check” with the reason — never as a silent pass and never as a failure. If your brief contains nothing StudyRef can verify mechanically, the result says nothing was checked, not that everything passed.