Plagiarism Detection Software

Poppy9

An easy way around the Plagiarism detection software is to use "Nelly's book of spelling".:D

wills72

Thanks for all your support. It was a technical subject, so only so many ways to explain a fact.

Kaj

Plagiarism is such a pain. i got my marks for an essay back saying i had used to many quotes. i still got a good grade but it was lower becuse of this. yet if i ahd done it in my own words i may have got pulled for plagiarism you cant win!

cowboy

I've just completed my 5000 word report and after reading this thread, I'm really worried of being wrongly accused! I'm feeling really restless now because I'm supposed to submit it real soon. Arrrghgghghg!

bestpud

I'm currently an undergraqduate and I think people are making this into something bigger than it is!

The idea of undergraduate work is to synthesize lots of different sources and come up with your own answer to the question, based upon what you have read.

I really cannot see how you can be accused of plagiarism for having just one similar sentence! If that is the case and you truly have never looked at the source, you should be fighting this!!!

Personally, I do not know of anyone who has had a problem like this but I do know of many who become very stressed about plagiarism and threads like this don't help.

My friends and I have shown repeatedly that students can have exactly the same question, but when they answer it in their own style (and the finished essays look very different), the grade can be the same. This is at uni and college before it.

It simply is not that easy to plagiarise!

OP, if you are innocent then DO NOT just sit back and have this on your record - FIGHT IT! Looking for the software is just daft imho.

Bestpud

jago25_98

It annoys me because everything is plagerism and even when something is original there is usually resistance against it!

Catseyez

wills72 wrote:

Hi

I have been wrongly accused of plagiarism. A sentence that I wrote was similar to one on a website, so my university said I 'Lightly paraphrased'. I now have to write another 3000 words. The whole procedure has been an absolute nightmare.

I know they use plagiarism detection software, I want to be able to do the same. Not so I can cheat, but so I can make sure I don't write anything similar to sites that I haven't visited!

All the software sites I have found seem to be for universities - does anyone know of any for students?

Thanks.

Hello,

I've only been at uni for one term and I am a little usnure about where the boundries are in terms of paraphrasing.

Did you reference the sentence as coming from another source, or did you just 'slip' it in, so to speak?

I'm waiting for an assignment to be returned and I am concerned that I may have to re-do it as a few sentences were very similar to their source. Yet, they came from a book and I did reference it, but not as a quote because I paraphrased, though it could be considered 'light paraphrasing'.

Catseyez

aurora_borealis_2

Plagiarism is practically a hanging offence.
Do not take it lightly.

Follow academic conventions at all times ... in a nutshell:

If it is a direct quote, word for word, wrap it in quotation marks and attribute the source.

If it is a paraphrase, i.e. not word for word - or anything too close, attribute at the end and again and again, if necessary.

You must distinguish between your ideas and those of others. If you're at all unsure, check and keep checking. It's a serious matter.

apoorstudent

This is why I hate uni. You're damned if you cite, and you're damned if you don't. In one essay, I got told I was 'copying' (whereas I was actually paraphrasing, then citing the author after the paraphrased sentence AND in the bibliography).

So, I then did another essay, and they told me not to use so many quotations/try to paraphrase the sources!

Seriously, what is the point.

aurora_borealis_2

Paraphrasing is not about rewriting someone else's words, but in a different order.

It's reading, assessing and then reassembling your impressions in your own words. The trick is to read a paragraph and then write your version without referring back to the original text.