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checking assignments/essays for copy and paste

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  • 26-08-2008 3:57pm
    #1
    Newport81
    Registered Users Posts: 715 ✭✭✭


    is there a way of doing this - apart from show/hide on word?


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    #2
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,444 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    I understand there are websites (paid services IIRC) that schools, universities and colleges can use to automatically detect plagiarised text, i.e. stuff copy and pasted from the Internet, in essays. It's becoming quite a problem for them, apparently.


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    #3
    Newport81
    Registered Users Posts: 715 ✭✭✭Newport81


    Have you any examples of these?


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    #4
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,444 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    smyths wrote: »
    Have you any examples of these?
    Just Google 'plagiarism software' ... loads of hits.


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    #5
    Tom Dunne
    Registered Users Posts: 23,212 ✭✭✭✭Tom Dunne


    Alun wrote: »
    I understand there are websites (paid services IIRC) that schools, universities and colleges can use to automatically detect plagiarised text, i.e. stuff copy and pasted from the Internet, in essays. It's becoming quite a problem for them, apparently.

    Oh there certainly is. I know of two colleges who use such software, it is becoming increasingly common.

    There is also Google.

    However, it's surprisingly easy for a lecturer to detect when something has been copied and pasted - language, style, accuracy, etc. If you are correcting assignments long enough you will spot a copy and paste job in the first couple of paragraphs.


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    #6
    Newport81
    Registered Users Posts: 715 ✭✭✭Newport81


    ok thanks, can someone close this now.


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    #7
    studiorat
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,408 ✭✭✭studiorat


    Pretty easy find it, when someone you know to be a dope writes like shakespeare. Then just take a line and google it, it'll come up sure enough...

    I suppose essays from people you don't know could be harder...


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    #8
    Tristram
    Registered Users Posts: 3,589 ✭✭✭Tristram


    The vast majority of the time it is blatantly obvious when a student is plagiarising material throughout their work. Required electronic submission of work normally indicates plagiarism software is being employed and happily it is becoming increasingly more common-place.


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    #9
    gyppo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,648 ✭✭✭gyppo


    Turnitin is being used by many Uni's and ITs at the moment. Its Very thorough!


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    #10
    Leon11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 578 ✭✭✭Leon11


    IT Tallaght used it for the 1st time last year. People were pulled up.


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    #11
    Hitchhiker's Guide to...
    Registered Users Posts: 3,322 ✭✭✭Hitchhiker's Guide to...


    don't even know what forum to move this to. definitely not part of Work&Jobs though.

    turnitin.com is the most widespread.

    its fairly obvious when something is copy&pasted in any case. the tone of the language changes etc.


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    #12
    H2G2
    Registered Users Posts: 622 ✭✭✭H2G2


    Roundtower2 wrote: »
    its fairly obvious when something is copy & pasted in any case. the tone of the language changes etc.

    I agree. I think you can usually smell something wrong.
    When I get suspicious, I cut and past some text into Google and often get exact matches.


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    #13
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,171 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    I had a JCSP student once who began a piece of homework with 'The palatial splendour of the Georgian facades...'

    That was enough for me.:D


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    #14
    Enright
    Registered Users Posts: 943 ✭✭✭Enright


    spurious wrote: »
    I had a JCSP student once who began a piece of homework with 'The palatial splendour of the Georgian facades...'

    That was enough for me.:D

    Was it the fact they they used a capital at the start of the sentence that gave it away?:D


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    #15
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,171 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Enright wrote: »
    Was it the fact they they used a capital at the start of the sentence that gave it away?:D

    Heh heh. Bless them. Mind you, I'd rather teach them than some other classes.


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    #16
    Ostrom
    Registered Users Posts: 3,483 ✭✭✭Ostrom


    I'm sick of picking through essays I know are plagiarized for half an hour pasting in quotes and checking citations, turnitin is a great idea and I hope we get around to using it soon.


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