The thing about buying a paper from a random academic writing service online is that you can never be too sure about the quality of the content produced. The issue isn’t always about the assignment being off topic. Rather, the concern often comes down to the uniqueness of the paragraphs that build up the work from the introduction through to the conclusion.
Some students are lucky to get 100% plagiarism-free papers that they can submit to their college or university professors through Turnitin. Others have to deal with plagiarized content, which is straight out a huge disappointment. In fact, when you get copied content from a writing service you trusted with your wallet, it’s easy to wonder how a service designed to help you turn out to be your biggest nightmare.
In this guide, we teach you how to tell if your academic paper is a bunch of copied words put together or a unique paper that you can use for reference. In particular, we look at the signs of plagiarism, and then give you some handy tips to help you make sure you never fall a victim of copied content ever again.
Let’s get started.
13 Possible Signs of Plagiarism
If you’ve received your essay, homework assignment, or research paper late, and you’re not sure whether the content provided is unique, you should consider checking the assignment for copied content before submitting it to your instructor.
Many students would immediately load a plagiarism checker to check the paper for uniqueness. Before you do that, though, it’s important to check your paper for signs of plagiarism first.
With that said, here are the 13 signs of plagiarism that you should know:
1. Uncalled for Hyperlinks
Presence of HTML links in your students work can mean that he or she has copied and pasted the ideas from websites.
This sort of plagiarism is only noticeable when a computer is use. Identify this sort of cheat is not possible when the submission is made in a hard copy.
2. Unclear Topic, Research Question and Argument
Any answer provided for a given topic should give ideas to the given topic. Insensible piles of vague paragraphs you get as argument from students could mean that they are using source that aren’t of their own. This kind of plagiarism happens as a result of not being prepared.
3. Outdated information, format and Font Changes
Whenever you read your student’s work and come across old information, it might be a red flag for plagiarism.
The plagiarism might have happened because the student is very poor in doing research or just does not want to do research because he or she is lazy.
Also, watch out for fonts. Most students will forget to set the fonts on their assignments uniform because they are on a hurry. The difference in font is result of copying and pasting words direct from the different sources online to word.
Students easily forget sites use different fonts. When notice difference in fonts, style and size of texts could be a sign of plagiarism.
4. Inappropriate Citation
Students who cite inappropriate references are capable of committing plagiarism. There are three citation reference styles. The styles include, American Psychological Association APA, Modern Language Association and Chicago.
Any student who doesn’t follow the styles mentioned above are committing plagiarism and must be penalized.
It is therefore the responsibility of teachers/instructors to teach this students the importance of these references.
5. Results from Digital Plagiarism Checkers
The introduction of online plagiarism checkers has really reduced the hassle of confirming student’s piracy in writing.
Content forwarded by students can be pasted on these checkers and in less than 30 seconds plagiarism report generated.
In case the writing of your student is the same as a given article on the internet the checker will tell you, same to when the writing is unique.
A lot of online plagiarism checkers are free and don’t require account creation, you only need a powerful internet connection and your student’s work.
6. Difficulty with Expression and Writing
Students can be well familiar with the topic in question by words to express their thoughts don’t come out. As a result of fear of being awarded awful grades they end up plagiarizing.
Apart from students who lack words to express their answers, students who struggle with their writing are also prone to committing content piracy since it seems the only right way out for them.
7. Highly Unusual Vocabulary
If your student has poor English when expressing his or herself in class by when it comes to the papers the English used is more than that of a vocabulary pro then it is most likely the student is cheating on the test. If you also notice the use of highly theoretical phrases then the student might be committing plagiarism.
8. Avoiding References
References to student’s findings are sometime required to validate answers. When a student does not include references to his or her work could mean the writing is not original and he or she doesn’t want the teacher to find out.
9. Procrastination
Poor time management is another reason students would want to copy from others or copy and paste form the internet.
When student realize they are running out of time they will definitely copy to ensure their work aren’t submitted with blanks.
The best way to deal with students who bad time managers is breaking assignment into various parts. That way they find time to work on the assignment within the stipulate time.
Keep an eye on students who are not good in managing time because their chances to commit plagiarism are supper high.
10. Inconsistent Use of Tense
Apart from being an indication of poor English, inconsistent use of tenses on an assignment is also a sign that the work was either copied from a given source or was worked on by a different author.
11. Incorrect or Bizarre Use of Words
Students who copy and paste work have bizarre punctuation. Strange or unusual punctuation shows when students try to connect sentences from different sources to make paragraphs out of them. Others go to an extent of using to make use of tools like Spinbot
This also leads to unusual listing errors. Whenever you come across such then, it means something out of the ordinary is taking part.
12. A Borderline GPA
Grade Point Average, GPS pressure many students. Others have to meet these grades to stay in a scholarship while others to stay in a sports team.
This kind of students are most likely going to copy work or have their work done by other people to keep their scholarships or stay in the sports team. Students of this kind should be reached and better ways to help improve their grade incorporated.
13. Sudden Change in Writing Style and Phrasing
To identify such a thing, teachers need to be extra keen when marking assignments. The English, grammar and the flow should not differ throughout the writing.
When a student mixes both the American and British English it could mean he or she is committing piracy and it might be with the help of a different writers or copy pasting from online sources.
Whenever you notice a connection of simple sentences with complicated, hard to digest sentence it could mean your student is committing plagiarism.
A sudden change in the way a student expresses various points or switching topics could also mean that the student is committing plagiarism.
Lastly, an essay with an extremely weak opening, a strong body and poor conclusion could also mean plagiarism.