Is there an easy way to check a piece of work for plagiarism?

[MultiBird]

DS has written a personal statement for a university course he'd like to do. (Applications are outside UCAS). He's asked me to check it and TBH I expected to do a bit of "polishing"

It's really very good. It's very personal to his own experiences, but it doesn't sound like him. The vocabulary is very flamboyant and this is a boy who had a private tutor to get a 4 at English GCSE (he got very high grades in maths and science, but not in written subjects).

Anyway, I thought it's better I discover it's a cut and paste job than they do. (If it is).

Try a simple copy and paste into google to see if any matches come up?

UCAS do check for this - and it will be picked up and returned if there are any issues with plagiarism.

There are websites. I use grammerly.

www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/filling-your-application/fraud-and-similarity

www.ucas.com/faqs/what-similarity-report

They dont just send the PS back - they tell the universities. Its very bad news - not just a rap on the knuckles and asked to resubmit.

Is it written on word? They have a feature where you can check for plagiarism

You need to use Google, grammerly or similar to check and then have a word with him. Be plain about what will happen, because it will, UCAS check every application. Ask him if he wants to press the send button and to take what comes or help to write one of his own.

I used to have similar conversations about coursework, with saddening regularity.

Universities use a piece of software called turnitin to to check for this (I don’t know if it’s free to use for everyone). It’s very powerful, will tell you which sources it is similar to, including assignments previously submitted.

could it be that he got help to write it? Or liberal use of a thesaurus?

maybe it’s worth a non-accusatory chat, he probably doesn’t know the consequences, people who plagiarise rarely do.

Could he have asked an essay mill to write it maybe? Also illegal unfortunately. As you say, better to be warned off it now than get in serious trouble later.

Why not just say to him that it's very polished but it doesnt much sound like him and ask if he had help with it. Point out it is fine to get help with your PS - loads of people do, but that it is very importnt that it doesnt come from a website or organisation that churns stuff out, because unis check and if they find it is plagiarised from a fixed text, they don't make an offer. So if he did use a service to get him started with it, he now needs to tone it down and put it in his own words.

Actually, having been through it properly it's good, but it's not "professional" iyswim. I think he just made good use of the thesaurus 😆 The phrasing does sound like him, the words don't. Some of the language is a bit clumsy, but I haven't polished it too much so it is still his work. Is that the correct approach?

There's too much that's really personal to him for it to be entirely off the shelf.

I'm really pleasantly surprised and impressed by the content more than the writing 🙂

I would double check with him gently if you have any doubts- there's quite a bit of unpolished stuff out there too that kids know about. So do the universities.

Also, just paste section into a google search.

www.plagscan.com/

used in college, works very well

DH is univ lecturer and his univ uses Turnitin, software previously mentioned on this thread. It is powerful and regularly catches plagiarism. The sanctions for those that are caught are severe--instant dismissal from their univ course.

I should add, I was once offered a job with a company that provided ready-written exam/course assignment answers/essays for students in return for their money. They asked me to write essays for their clients. I said no as it was clearly unethical, but the point here is that I read a lot of the ready-written answers/essays that the company provided and they were not all that polished. Nor were they all written in standard English. But they would probably have got pretty good grades.

Just a warning to make sure you tell your son about these things so he knows.

OP here. He's just heard he's got an interview!

Oh that’s great new, thanks for the update !