How to check an essay plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of copying someone else's work or ideas and indicating that they belong to you. This can even consist of copying your own written ideas. According to writers from Mcessay plagiarism of an essay can be something as simple as copying a paragraph from another source without citing it. However, it can also be as serious as copying entire pages from another written source, such as an essay, book, publication, or article. To identify it, you will need to know the common mistakes plagiarists make, as well as ways to confirm your suspicions.

Compare the current essay with the student's usual style. If the style is very different, the student has likely plagiarized the most recent essay. For example, is the job much longer or does it do a more in-depth analysis than you would expect from this person? This alone will not be a sign of plagiarism, but you should definitely pay close attention to identify other signs.

Does this student often make typographical errors, but will present a perfect essay from one moment to the next? Do you tend to provide incoherent or poorly developed concepts, but suddenly present well-formulated statements?
Use the portfolio with your classwork as a point of comparison. If you are suspicious, it may be helpful to ask other teachers to provide copies of their work in these classes.

Identify the changes in the sentences. If one sentence is simple and inappropriate, and the next sentence is very wordy and uses complicated connections, these are likely coming from two different sources. Spot these changes in the essay, as students often match other sources with their own work.

You may also notice that points of view change or that the student abruptly ends a thought by moving to another topic.
Also see if it has a poor start and end, but a wonderful middle part, or some other combination of poor and solid parts. This may be a sign that the student is having difficulty formulating an essay in a logical way. However, it can also be a sign of plagiarism if you have cut and pasted information from various sources.

Pay attention to spelling changes. If the student has plagiarized an essay, you might notice that there are certain words that they spelled differently. For example, it could go from British to American English, or vice versa. Sometimes the name of a character in a novel will vary a bit depending on the version of the text. If the words change throughout it, this could be a sign of plagiarism.

However, inconsistent spelling could also be due to poor writing skills.

See if the student stays focused on the topic. Obviously, students can drift off topic in an essay, as they will not yet be fantastic writers. However, if your essay deviates so much that it no longer even covers the main points, this could be because you have poorly chosen a source from which to plagiarize.

Identify strange phrases. You will not always be able to find good plagiarized essays. If the student does not read it well, he may not realize that it is misspelled. Strange phrases are often due to poor translations, as some essays may come from other languages.

Keep reading the ideas that are too sophisticated. If you detect some concepts that are of a much higher level than the class you teach, you may have to keep reading them. Obviously, some students will be at a much higher level than the class, but this could also mean that they have been copied from another source.

For example, if you are teaching introductory writing and the student is doing graduate-level work, you may need to review their essay more thoroughly.

Pay attention to similar phrases in all essays. One way to detect plagiarism is to look for similar phrases in different essays. Often times, students who plagiarize will get the information from the same web pages, so their work will have the same words and phrases.

You might notice that, when talking about a book like Frankenstein, there is a certain phrase that is repeated in many essays, such as "It represents the monster that we all carry within us."