Suspect plagiarism? Here’s an easy way to check

 

                Has a student’s written work suddenly and spontaneously become sophisticated and fluent?  Is part of the paper the student’s typical writing, and the middle is suddenly error-free?  Are you suspicious?

 

                One quick and easy way to check if the work was borrowed from the Internet is to “google” some of the paper.  Here’s how.

 

1.        Identify a sentence or phrase that makes you suspicious.

 

2.       In Google, www. google.com, in the search box, type in that phrase.  You may have better luck if you “put quotation marks around the phrase.”  Don’t do a whole paragraph – a sentence or long phrase will do.

 

3.       Look at the results.  Do you see that very phrase or sentence?  Do you see still more of the suspicious report or essay?  Is much of your student’s essay or report the same as what you found via Google?

 

 

4.       Print down the Internet page with the copied material.  Highlight or otherwise mark it.

 

 

5.       Mark the offending material in your student’s work.  If they are the same, or virtually the same, you have the necessary information to document the problem and take action.

 

Sad we have to do this, but this provides us with a teachable moment, doesn’t it?

 

Fran

 

 

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