How can plagiarism be detected

In this phase, meeting with the student to discuss their knowledge of the topics discussed in the paper can help. Technological tools can also help. Another option is Turnitin. The following is excerpted from " Cheating and Plagiarism on the Rise? There are a number of ways that technology can be used to identify potentially plagiarized content.

This post examines the different ways, and how Turnitin uses search technology and content comparison algorithms to help educators help students learn how to use source attribution appropriately. Plagiarism has always existed as a problem - the origins of the word date back to the 1st century.

It's only of late, however, that plagiarism has become a significant concern not just for educators and researchers, but also in the public sphere.

New instances of plagiarism seem to hit the news on a daily basis. Whether it's song lyrics, plagiarism by school officials, government ministers, speeches by political figures, or the plagiarism that happens in the classroom, incidents of plagiarism appear to be on the rise everywhere.

We have the internet to thank for that. With the rise of the internet, we've seen exponential growth of content created and made readily available, almost everywhere. The growth is happening on such a large scale that we don't even have a way to grasp how huge of a change in content creation we're witnessing.

In , factshunt. The growth is happening so fast, that we don't have a way to accurately determine the number of new pages created each day or the total amount of content that currently exists online. The best estimates suggest there are 47 billion indexed and searchable web pages article. To put this number into perspective, it would take approximately trillion sheets of paper to print out the entire internet, today.

With all of this information so immediately accessible, is it any surprise that we've seen a rise in plagiarism as well? Fortunately, the growth of the internet and our need to find ways to search that content has led to developments in web crawling and indexing technology the latter of which is used to identify the content that is crawled that has led to technology that quickly identifies copying and the potential plagiarism of content. First off, it is important to clarify that plagiarism detection software doesn't specifically identify plagiarism.

No software will ever be able to accurately determine intent. And intent is one of the factors that educators consider when looking at incidents of plagiarism in student work. The way that plagiarism detection software works is to identify content similarity matches. That is, the software scans a database of crawled content and identifies the text components and then compares it to the components, or content, of other work. If necessary, you can write your own. Go over the citation guide you want students to use.

If students understand how to write proper citations, they are more likely to use them. Tell students what citation system you would like them to use and spend some time in class explaining the system.

For example, if you want them to use APA, show them how to cite a book and a website. Give specific examples of how his larger than life personality directly affected the outcome of his diplomatic efforts. This will help cut down on students using papers that previous students wrote. If you do find evidence of plagiarism, make sure to follow protocol.

For example, you might be required to notify the principal or guidance counselor. Some schools have a no-tolerance policy, which means that the student automatically fails the assignment or even the class.

Meet with the student first if you think it was an innocent mistake. Many students plagiarize without even realizing it. Consider talking to the student first to see if they understand what they did wrong. Educational Leadership Consultant. The best way to prevent plagiarism is not just to detect it, but to also teach students about it. That's our job as teachers. We don't want to be punitive and penalize students, we want to find out why they're doing it and how they can avoid it.

They need to learn how to cite the work of someone else and why it's important to cite their work. Yes No. Not Helpful 0 Helpful 1. Feed the text through a good plagiarism checker online, such as Grammarly. It will highlight the parts that are plagiarized and show the source the material was copied from. Not Helpful 0 Helpful 7. You could try Googling the complete poems and checking the results coming up.

Not Helpful 0 Helpful 6. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Trust your gut. If you think something is off, it probably is.

Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0. If you are worried that you accidentally plagiarized, you can check your work using the same tools as your teacher. Related wikiHows How to. How to. Expert Interview. More References 8. About This Article. Co-authored by:. Co-authors: Updated: August 10, Categories: Writing.