Signs of Plagiarism Every Teacher Should Know
Plagiarism might be easy to find in the assignments submitted by the students of early classes or those you work with on a daily basis. You would have an idea about their writing skills and how well they have performed in the past. You could easily trace out that the ideas or insights interjected by them in writing are something you have heard or seen from them ever. However, it is quite challenging for the teachers to detect plagiarism in the content of higher classes’ students.
Whether it is negligence in citing the source or taking assistance from a professional writer to complete an assignment, plagiarism can destroy the learning of students and damage their academic careers.
In this article, we are going to pen down a few signs of plagiarism that every teacher must know to ensure the uniqueness of the content.
Abrupt Transition in Writing Style
Full attention from the teachers is essential while checking their students’ writing. If the writing pattern changes all of sudden, or the grammatical structure suddenly looks different after a paragraph or a few sentences, then it might not be their writing. Your students may have copied the content from an online source or taken the help of any other person to complete the task. Teachers must advise their students to use a reputable grammar checker to double check their content before submitting to avoid any inconvenience
Complex and Irrelevant Information
A good teacher always knows his/her students and their capabilities. If the information they have shared in their work is far beyond complex than their usual ideas, or the irrelevant words, like “Nicolas said,” “Thomas have filed the data,” or “In my professional career,” etc., are included in their assignments, then you can easily judge that the text is plagiarized.
Inappropriate Citation
If you are a teacher, you must encourage your students to trust their own skills instead of relying on others’ shoulders. It is also suggested that you must teach them the appropriate way of giving credit to the references from which they are getting inspiration. There are three main citation reference styles used all over the globe that include Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), and Chicago. The instructors must guide their students about the significance of these reference styles, and if students fail to follow any one of these styles, they have to face the penalty against committing plagiarism. Giving proper credit to the author or a site will save them from facing any penalty. So, as a teacher, if you find your students writing matches with already published content without adequate citation, then it will fall under duplicated content.
Changes in The Formatting of Paper
The overall formatting of the submitted paper plays a vital role in getting appreciation from your teacher. But what if the formatting of the paper isn’t constant and has different fonts and margins? Of course, it will clearly define that the content is taken from different sources, and it’s not the writing of a single person.
Results from a Digital Plagiarism Checker
Last but not least, the innovation in the technology will also provide great assistance to the teachers for detecting piracy in writing. A teacher can use an effective online plagiarism checker to find any minor duplication in content without going through any hassle. The modern tools available over the web provide you with an opportunity to grab any minor similarity in an article. The best thing about using a digital source is that you don’t need to make any efforts. You can identify the plagiarism in your students’ work by uploading it on the utility, and the results will be on your screen in no time.
