Checking for Plagiarism
More and more schools, colleges and universities are
checking for plagiarism - and it's becoming easier for them to do so.
Plagiarism is when students copy someone else's work
without giving the original author credit.
Many students don't realize that doing this is wrong.
Using research materials is an important part of
constructing an essay or report, but copying them exactly (without quoting
them) is wrong.
If you cannot reword something without it sounding
abnormal, you can quote from the person. The way to do this is like
this....
Rand (1956) explained that,
"although the evidence for action is not clear, on balance it is
right that we continue until further evidence comes to light."
In this case, we are using someone
else's work - but not plagiarizing as we are making it clear where it
comes from.
How Teachers Check for Plagiarism
The simplest way for teachers to check for plagiarism
is to copy a chunk of your text into Google, enclosed in "quotation
marks" and see if any results come up. This is the simplest method.
You can use the free Plagiarism
Tester Tool on this site, which does the same thing.
Why Checking for Plagiarism is
getting easier
Up until a few years ago, students could get away with
going to the library and copying text out of books. The chances are that
the lecturer would never have read the book. Even if they had, there was
little way of checking - apart from going line by line through every book
in the library and comparing it to your essay.
Now, just as it is easier for students to research on
the Internet, it is just as easy for teachers and lecturers to catch
plagiarism attempts.
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